Andrea Cooper

Andrea Cooper

Professor

University of Leicester, UK

Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2957

Email: Amc72@le.ac.uk

 

 

 

VALIDATE Role: 

Network Management Board Member 2017+, Network Investigator

 

Research Keywords: 

Cellular immunity, tuberculosis, lung models of immune response

 

Biography:

I received my undergraduate degree from University College, London and my Doctoral degree from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine UK, where I investigated the interaction between macrophages and protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania.

Moving to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, I expanded my investigation of leishmaniasis to include the T cell response of patients suffering from cutaneous, mucocutaneous and visceral forms of this disease.

I then moved to the Mycobacterial Research Labs at Colorado State University and began studying the protective immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Prior to my move to the University of Leicester, I was at the Trudeau Institute, Inc. for 12 years, where I held the E.L. Trudeau Chair which allowed me to study the cellular immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The goal of my programme is to define the factors impacting the expression of immunity in the lung. The underlying themes include:

  • the role of early innate events in driving coordinated immune responses
  • the role of cytokines and chemokines in initiation, expression and regulation of immunity
  • the role of lymphocyte priming, differentiation and migratory capacity in prolonged expression of immunity
  • the role of the inflamed environment in regulating the expression of immunity

The infection model of choice is mycobacterial challenge through droplet particles to the alveolar tissue in the lung. This model uses a low dose challenge, allowing for very early immune-mediated events in the lung tissue to be dissected with regard to kinetics, location and the contribution of specific cell types to immunity. There has been a focus on the role of IL-12, IL-23 and IL-17 and the specific role of dendritic cells and lung resident innate lymphocytes in initiation and coordination of the acquired T cell response.

We also have a project examining the role of neonatal exposure to bacterial products as a factor which impacts these early responses to mycobacterial infection in the adult. These studies impact on working models of what makes individuals more susceptible to infection in the lung and also to our understanding of basic immune mechanisms.

 

Related Websites: 

Profile page at University of Leicester

 

Key Publications:

Torrado E, Fountain JJ, Liao M, Tighe M, Reiley WW, Lai RP, Meintjes G, Pearl JE, Chen X, Zak DE, Thompson EG, Aderem A, Ghilardi N, Solache A, McKinstry KK, Strutt TM, Wilkinson RJ, Swain SL, Cooper AM. 2015 Interleukin 27R regulates CD4+ Tcell phenotype and impacts protective immunity during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Journal of Experimental Medicine. 212(9):1449-63. PMID: 26282876; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4548054.

Okada S, Markle JG, Deenick EK, Mele F, Averbuch D, Lagos M, Alzahrani M, Al-Muhsen S, Halwani R, Ma CS, Wong N, Soudais C, Henderson LA, Marzouqa H, Shamma J, Gonzalez M, Martinez-Barricarte R, Okada C, Avery DT, Latorre D, Deswarte C, Jabot-Hanin F, Torrado E, Fountain J, Belkadi A, Itan Y, Boisson B, Migaud M, Arlehamn CS, Sette A, Breton S, McCluskey J, Rossjohn J, de Villartay JP, Moshous D, Hambleton S, Latour S, Arkwright PD, Picard C, Lantz O, Engelhard,D, Kobayashi M, Abel L, Cooper AM, Notarangelo LD, Boisson-Dupuis S, Puel A, Sallusto F, Bustamante J, Tangye SG, Casanova JL. 2015 Impairment of immunity to Candida and Mycobacterium in humans with bi-allelic RORC mutations. Science. 349(6248):606-13 PubMed PMID: 26160376.

Ian M. Orme, Richard T Robinson and Andrea M. Cooper 2015. The balance between protective and pathogenic immune responses in the TB infected lung. Nature Immunology 16:57-63 PMID 25521685

Richard T. Robinson, Ian M. Orme and Andrea M. Cooper 2015. The onset of adaptive immunity in the mouse model of tuberculosis and the factors which compromise its expression. Immunological Reviews, 264:46-59 PMID 25703551

Cruz A, Torrado E, Carmona J, Fraga AG, Costa P, Rodrigues F, Appelberg R, Correia-Neves M, Cooper AM, Saraiva M, Pedrosa J, Castro AG. 2015. BCG vaccination-induced long-lasting control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis correlates with the accumulation of a novel population of CD4(+)IL-17(+)TNF(+)IL-2(+) T cells. Vaccine 33:85-91 PubMed PMID: 25448107.

Ray AA, Fountain JJ, Miller HE, Cooper AM, Robinson RT. 2015 IL12Rβ1ΔTM is a secreted product of il12rb1 that promotes control of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. Infection and Immunity. 83(2):560-71 PubMed PMID: 25404030. PMC4294230

Cooper AM. Mouse model of tuberculosis. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2014 5:a018556. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a018556. PubMed PMID: 25256174.

Kai McKinstry, Tara Strutt, Bianca Bautista, Wenliang Zhang, Yi Kuang, Andrea Cooper, and Susan Swain. 2014. Effector CD4 T cell transition to memory requires late cognate interactions that induce autocrine IL-2. Nature Communications 5:5377 PubMed PMID: 25369785; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4223689.

Torrado, E., J. J. Fountain, R. T. Robinson, C. A. Martino, J. E. Pearl, J. Rangel-Moreno, M. Tighe, R. Dunn, and A. M. Cooper. 2013. Differential and site specific impact of B cells in the protective immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the mouse. PLoS One 8:e61681.

Pearl JE, Torrado E, Tighe M, Fountain JJ, Solache A, Strutt T, Swain S, Appelberg R, Cooper AM 2012. Nitric oxide inhibits the accumulation of CD4+ CD44hiTbet+CD69lo T cells in mycobacterial infection. European Journal of Immunology 42:3267-3279

Robinson, RT., S.A. Khader, C.A. Martino, J.J. Fountain, M. Teixeira-Coelho, J.E. Pearl, Stephen T. Smiley, G.M. Winslow, D.L. Woodland, M.J. Walter, J.R. Conejo-Garcia, U. Gubler, A.M. Cooper. 2010 Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection induces il12rb1 splicing to generate a novel IL12Rβ1 isoform that enhances DC migration. Journal of Experimental Medicine 207:591-605

Cruz A, Fraga AG, Fountain JJ, Rangel-Moreno J, Torrado E, Saraiva M, Pereira DR, Randall TD, Pedrosa J, Cooper AM, Castro AG. 2010 Pathological role of interleukin 17 in mice subjected to repeated BCG vaccination after infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Journal of Experimental Medicine  207:1609-1616