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The William Harvey Research Institute - Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry

Dr Dianne Cooper

Reader in Inflammation Biology

Centre: Biochemical Pharmacology

Email: d.cooper@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44(0) 20 7882 5643
Twitter: @DrDCoop

Profile

ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5553-9447

Dianne Cooper is a Reader in Inflammation Biology at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London. Dianne graduated from the University of Sheffield in 1995 with a BSc in Anatomy and Cell Biology and from the University of Bradford in 1997 with an MSc in Biomedical Sciences. She then completed a PhD at the University of Bradford with Prof. Anne Graham. In 2001 Dianne moved to Shreveport, Louisiana to complete a two-year post-doctoral post in the laboratory of Dr Neil Granger at LSUHSC. Dianne joined the Centre for Biochemical Pharmacology in 2003 and was awarded a Career Development Fellowship from Barts Charity in 2004, a Versus Arthritis Career Development Fellowship in 2007 and a Career Progression Fellowship in 2013. She obtained her lectureship in 2013 and her Senior Lectureship in 2018.

Current roles include Deputy Centre Lead for Biochemical Pharmacology and module lead for Drug Design for Pharmacologists for the Pharmacology and Innovative Therapeutics and Inflammation Therapeutics for the iBSc in Experimental Pharmacology.

Memberships and Awards

  • Editor British Journal of Pharmacology
  • BIRAs committee member
  • LVBF committee member 

Research

Group members

  • PhD students: Miss Rachael Wright, Miss Beatrice Gittens

Summary 

Role of galectins in inflammation
My research focuses on understanding the function of a family of carbohydrate binding proteins, known as galectins, during an inflammatory response. The focus is to understand how galectin expression within the vasculature is regulated during inflammation and how this altered expression regulates leukocyte trafficking in the microcirculation. To date my research has identified an inhibitory role for Galectin-1 in neutrophil and lymphocyte recruitment during acute inflammation. This research is now being expanded to include more complex models of inflammation in order to understand the function of galectins in pathologies such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Specific projects include:

  • Understanding the role of Galectin-1 in inflammatory arthritis. This project forms the basis of an Arthritis Research UK funded fellowship.
  • Role of Galectin-3 in leukocyte trafficking This project forms the basis of a British Heart Foundation funded PhD studentship and aims to address the role of Gal-3 in the trafficking of different leukocyte subsets during acute inflammation. 
  • Are galectins protective in osteoarthritis This project, in collaboration with Dr Tina Chowdhury, aims to address the role of galectins in osteoarthritis. 

Publications

Collaborators

Internal

  • Prof Tim Warner (Blizard)
  • Prof Shu Ye (WHRI)
  • Dr Robin Poston (WHRI)
  • Dr Tina Chowdhury (SEMS)
  • Dr Egle Solito (WHRI)


External

  • Prof Mitsuomi Hirashima (Kagawa University, Japan)
  • Dr Toshiro Niki (GalPharma Inc., Japan)
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