Dr. Antony Cooper – Australia
Parkinson’s Research scientist. PhD (McGill, Canada), Post-Doc (Oregon), Faculty (Univ. Missouri). Returned to Australia to the Garvan Institute to study the molecular mechanisms of Parkinson’s Disease, Biomarkers, genetic contributions and the intent of slowing/stopping disease progression Conjoint/Adjunct Role(s): Conjoint Senior Lecturer, School of Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences, St Vincent’s Clinical School, UNSW Sydney Antony Cooper is a cell and molecular biologist / geneticist with strong interests in elucidating how cellular dysfunction results in human diseases, with a specific interest in neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson’s Disease. His research on neurodegenerative diseases focuses on understanding the basis of Parkinson’s Disease. Antony completed a PhD at McGill University working on membrane trafficking, and post-doctoral studies at the University of Oregon involving both protein splicing and proteostasis/protein quality control in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). As an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri his interests evolved to protein misfolding, ER stress and oxidative stress, factors common to many neurodegenerative diseases. As a tenured Associate Professor in Missouri and since returning to Australia at the Garvan Institute he has focused his research on Parkinson’s disease. Previous Appointments: University of Missouri-Kansas City (2002-2006) - Tenured Associate Professor, Cell Biology & Biophysics University of Missouri-Kansas City (1996-2002) - Assistant Professor, Cell Biology and Biophysics University of Oregon (1991-1995) - Post-doctoral Fellow Research Interests: Parkinson’s Disease; discovering the cause and new approaches to diagnose, treat and cure Neurogenomics; identifying the genomic and transcriptomic contribution to neurodegenerative diseases Proteostasis - the integrated cellular pathways that control the biogenesis, folding, trafficking and degradation of proteinsCellular stresses such as oxidative and nitrosative stress/damage, stress in the endoplasmic reticulum, hypoxia and how they disrupt proteostasis Education: 1990 - PhD in Molecular Biology, McGill University, Montreal - Canada 1984 - BSc (Hons I in Biochemistry), University of Otago - New Zealand