Roland Cooper, PhD
Associate Professor
Office: Science Center #222
Lab: Science Center #221
415-482-1887
roland.cooper@dominican.edu
Academic Areas
Pharmacology, Parasitology, Genetics, Public Health
Educational Background
- MsPH Tropical Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health. Boston, MA
- PhD Pharmacology & Toxicology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
- MA Aquatic & Population Biology, University of California , Santa Barbara, CA
- BA Biological Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
TEACHING & Research
Malaria, caused by the blood parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, claims about one million lives and results in hundreds of millions of clinical cases annually, primarily due to the lack of safe, affordable and efficacious drugs available for impoverished populations. Compounding the severity of the problem is the lack of an effective malaria vaccine for the foreseeable future. Antimalarial drugs still offer the best hope for reduction of morbidity and mortality associated with this disease. The foundation of my lab’s research has been the mechanistic and genomic aspects of two major classes of antimalarial drugs, the endoperoxides and the quinolines. We are also interested in the relationship between drug resistance, host immunity and HIV status in clinical outcomes of malaria patients in field studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa.
recent Publications
- Patel, J.J., Thacker, D., Tan, J.C., Pleeter, P., Checkley, L., Gonzales, J.M., Deng, B., Roepe, P.D., Cooper, R.A., Ferdig, M.T. Chloroquine susceptibility and reversibility in a Plasmodium falciparum genetic cross. Molecular Microbiolog 78, 770-87. PMID: 20807203. (2010)
- Hartwig C.L., Rosenthal A.S., Angelo J.D., Griffin C.E., Posner G.H., Cooper, R.A. Accumulation of artemisinin trioxane derivatives within neutral lipids of Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites is endoperoxide-dependent. Biochemical Pharmacology 77, 322-336. PMID: 19022224. (2009)
- Kelly, J.X., Smilkstein, M.J., Brun, R., Wittlin, S., Cooper, R.A., Lane, K.D., Janowsky, A., Johnson, R.A., Dodean, R.A., Winter, R., Hinrichs, D.J., Riscoe, M.K. Discovery dual function acridones as a new antimalarial chemotype. Nature 459, 270-273. PMID: 19357645. (2009)
- Jiang, H., Patel, J.J., Yi, M., Ding, J., Stephens, R., Cooper, R.A., Ferdig, M.T. and Su, X-z. Genome-wide compensatory changes accompany drug-selected mutations in the Plasmodium falciparum crt gene. PLoS One 3, e2484. PMID: 18575593. (2008)
- Kelly, J.X., Smilkstein, M., Cooper, R.A., Lane, K.D., Johnson, R., Janowsky, A., Dodean, R., Hinrichs, J., Winter R. and Riscoe, M. Design, synthesis, and evaluation of 10-N-substituted acridones as novel chemosensitizers in Plasmodium falciparum. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 51, 4133-4140. PMID: 17846138. (2007)
recent Presentations
- Activity of artemisinin trioxanes against Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes is associated with parasite neutral lipids. Hartwig, C. L., Hoke, J.M., Andrew S. Rosenthal, A.S., John G. D’ Angelo, J.G., Saliha Eksi, S. Gary H. Posner, G.H., Kim C. Williamson, K.C., and Cooper, R.A. Molecular Parasitology Meeting, Woods Hole, MA, September 21st-25th, 2008.
