Christopher Cooper

Following my first degree in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford (Merton College), I moved to the Department of Engineering Science and Linacre College to pursue a PhD/DPhil in molecular microbiology and biochemistry. During this time I developed an interest in DNA replication and repair, studying thermoacidophilic archaea and their DNA polymerases. To pursue my interests in genomics, I then undertook a Masters degree in Bioinformatics at the University of York with a research placement at the University of Uppsala in Sweden.

I subsequently moved into eukaryotic molecular biology, working for 3 years at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences in Oxford. Here I researched microRNA and cancer-testis antigen expression profiles in human lymphomas, cementing my interests in cancer research. I then undertook two postdoctoral positions at the Structural Genomics Consortium (Oxford), working on high-throughput crystallography and biochemistry of human DNA polymerases and helicases involved in genome integrity, SNF2 family members in chromatin remodelling and ETS transcription factors.

I continued to research genome integrity factors in cancer during a short postdoc at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology (Oxford), using structural, biochemical and cell biology approaches to study endonucleases and chromatin remodeling SNF2 ATPases involved in the DNA damage response. During my latter postdoc positions I was appointed as an E.P. Abraham Cephalosporin Junior Research Fellow and a member of the Governing Body at Linacre College, and also as a College Lecturer in Biochemistry at the Queen’s College.

I joined the University of Huddersfield as a Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences in 2015.

• Taking a multi-disciplinary approach to study proteins involved in the DNA damage response and genome integrity in human cancers and aging
• Developing novel protein expression and purification systems to facilitate structural and biochemical approaches 
• Biotechnological exploitation of novel DNA metabolising proteins from extremophilic bacteria and archaea

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