Cooper Lab

Current work/topics

• Cartilage and bone health throughout the lifespan of bats and whales
• Brain composition in whales

Funding/support

• National Science Foundation
• UH-NEOMED Faculty Scholar Program

Select publications

• Cooper LN, Ansari MY, Capshaw G, Galazyuk A, Lauer AM, Moss CF, Sears KE, Stewart M, Teeling EC, Wilkinson GS, Wilson RC, Zwaka TP, Orman R. 2024. Bats as instructive animal models for studying aging. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1-14.
• Hieronymus TL, Waugh DA, Ball HC, Vinyard CJ, Galazyuk A, Cooper LN. 2023. Comparing age- and bone-related differences in collagen fiber orientation: A case study of bats and laboratory mice using quantitative polarized light microscopy. Anatomical Record 1-19.
• LN Cooper, R Suydam, JGM Thewissen. 2023. Cetacean evolution: Copulatory and birthing consequences of pelvic and hindlimb reduction. In Sex in Cetaceans: Morphology, Behavior, and the Evolution of Sexual Strategies (eds. B. Wursig, D. Orbach). Pages 65-83.
• Cooper LNC, Ball HC, Vinyard CJ, Safadi FF, George JC, and Thewissen JGM. 2020. Linking gene expression and phenotypic changes in the developmental and evolutionary origins of osteosclerosis in the ribs of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus). Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution: 1-11.
• Ball H.C., Ievari-Shariati S., Cooper L.N., Aliani M. 2018. Comparative metabolomics of aging in a long-lived bat: Insights into the physiology of extreme longevity. PLoS One 13(5): e0196154.
• Crish C.M., Ball H., Lin L., Novak K.M., Cooper L.N. 2018. Evidence of Wnt/β-catenin alterations in brain and bone of a tauopathy mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiology of Aging 67:148-158.
• Cooper, L.N., Sears K.E., Armfield B.A., Kala B., Hubler M., Thewissen J. G.M. 2018. Review and experimental evaluation of the embryonic development and evolutionary history of flipper development and hyperphalangy in dolphins (Cetacea: Mammalia). Genesis: The Journal of Genetics and Development 56(1): e23076.

Open positions

Contact Dr. Cooper if interested in joining the lab.

Lab members

• Dr. Ashley Mohrman – research technician
• Samantha Magrini – graduate student
• Hanna Ellis – medical student fellow
• Harley Raines – medical student fellow
• Miguel Alfonso Viray – medical student fellow
• Trinity McFadden – undergraduate researcher
• Ryan Davidson – undergraduate researcher
• William Adams – high school volunteer

See next

• List of Biomedical Sciences labs
• College of Medicine home