Conference Speakers

Chris Cooper obtained a BSc. in Biochemistry at the University of Bristol and a PhD in Biophysics at the University of Guelph; his PhD focused on the enzymology and bioenergetics of mitochondrial energy metabolism. From 1989-1992 he studied electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy at King’s College London, where he co-ordinated the King’s College London Metalloproteins Group, expanding it into the college-wide Centre for the Study of Metals in Biology and Medicine. In 1992 he was awarded a Medical Research Council Fellowship at University College London (UCL) to study oxygen metabolism in vivo using a combination of magnetic resonance and near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Research collaborations included the key animal studies underpinning the use of moderate hypothermia to treat neonatal brain ischemia. He published one of the first papers detailing the mechanism of how nitric oxide affects oxygen metabolism and one of the most cited reviews on the enzyme nitric oxide synthase.

Following a Wellcome Trust University Award in 1995, Dr. Cooper moved to the University of Essex. In 1997 he was awarded the Melvin H. Knisely Award for “outstanding international achievements in research related to oxygen transport to tissue” and was promoted to Professor of Biochemistry in 1999. In 2003, Professor Cooper was awarded an MRC Discipline Hopping Award to return to UCL to explore the application of optics in biological and clinical studies of the brain.

Professor Cooper has a commitment to engaging with the public and was an EPSRC Senior Media Fellow from 2008-2011. He has published two popular science books with Oxford University Press: Run Swim, Throw Cheat: the science of drugs in sport (2012) and Blood: a Very Short Introduction (2016). He has been in regular demand in local, national and international broadcast and print media, commenting on both his own research and science in general. He recently published a number of short science fiction stories.

His current research interests focus on oxygen transport and utilisation in biology and medicine. His in vivo work uses near infrared (NIR) light to measure oxygen transport and metabolism. He has a keen interest in sports research and was a past Director of the Centre for Sports and Exercise Science at the University of Essex. He published one of the first papers demonstrating the use of portable NIRS to measure the effects of training
adaptations in elite athletes.

Professor Cooper’s in vitro studies explore the free radical reactivity of proteins that transport and consume oxygen, such as hemoglobin and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase. He has multiple patents granted and pending on the development of hemoglobin-based blood substitutes/oxygen therapeutics funded by UK government research councils and commercial development funds. The unique aspect of the Essex oxygen therapeutic project (currently led by Dr. Brandon Reeder) is the judicial use of recombinant methods to insert redox-active tyrosine residues into hemoglobin to decrease free radical toxicity. Additional cysteine insertions enable homogenous PEGylation of the Essex product. The project was short-listed for best new MedTech program by OBN and Professor Cooper was short-listed for BBSRC Innovator of the Year.

Dr. Cooper is an Emeritus Professor in both the School of Life Sciences and the School of Sport Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences at the University of Essex. He holds the position of Honorary Professor in the Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at University College London (UCL). He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Biology and the Royal Society of Chemistry.