Rate My Professor Helen Cooper

Professor Helen J. Cooper is Professor of Mass Spectrometry in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham and Science Director and Challenge Lead for Integrated Chemical Imaging in Cells and Tissues at the Rosalind Franklin Institute. She obtained her BSc in Chemistry and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Warwick, completing her doctorate under the supervision of Peter Derrick on mass spectrometric studies of collisional activation and target capture. Following her PhD, she served as a technical officer in the EPSRC national FT-ICR mass spectrometry facility at Warwick. In 2000, she joined the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University to work with Alan Marshall. Returning to the UK in 2003, she established her independent research career at the University of Birmingham via a Wellcome Trust University Technology Fellowship, advancing to Senior Lecturer in 2010, Professor of Mass Spectrometry, Deputy Head of School, and EPSRC Established Career Fellow.

Cooper's research centers on the development and application of advanced mass spectrometry techniques for characterizing biomolecular structures, particularly gas-phase ion chemistry of peptides and proteins. She is a world leader in electron capture dissociation mass spectrometry and has pioneered native ambient mass spectrometry for in situ analysis of intact proteins and assemblies directly from tissues, bridging spatial and structural biology with implications for molecular pathology and drug discovery. Key projects include native ambient mass spectrometry, 3D Protein Atlas of Brain, and Biochemical Microscopy. Notable publications include 'Integrated Native Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Soluble and Membrane Proteins' (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2026), 'Mass spectrometry imaging of SOD1 protein-metal complexes in SOD1G93A transgenic mice implicates demetalation with pathology' (Nature Communications, 2024), 'Tissue Washing Improves Native Ambient Mass Spectrometry Detection of Membrane Proteins Directly from Tissue' (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2023), and 'Native Ambient Mass Spectrometry of an Intact Membrane Protein Assembly and Soluble Protein Assemblies Directly from Lens Tissue' (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2022). Her contributions are recognized with the 2022 Royal Society of Chemistry Theophilus Redwood Award, Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Wellcome Trust and EPSRC fellowships. She serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry.