Professor Helen Cooper
University of Birmingham
Helen J. Cooper is Professor of Mass Spectrometry in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham.
She undertook her BSc in Chemistry at the University of Warwick, before going on to study for her PhD under the supervision of Peter Derrick. After her PhD, she remained at the University of Warwick as technical officer in the newly-created EPSRC national FT-ICR mass spectrometry facility. In 2000, she moved to the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University to work with Prof Alan Marshall. She returned to the UK in 2003 to establish an independent career at the University of Birmingham. She has been the recipient of a Wellcome Trust University Technology Fellowship and an EPSRC Established Career Fellowship.
Helen’s research focuses on developing native ambient mass spectrometry methods for in situ analysis of proteins. She is Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and winner of the 2022 Royal Society of Chemistry Theophilus Redwood Award for analytical chemistry.
Native ambient mass spectrometry
Native ambient mass spectrometry (NAMS) combines spatial and structural biology by enabling untargeted label-free interrogation of proteins in their functional form directly from their physiological environment.
3D Protein Atlas of Brain
Native ambient mass spectrometry (NAMS) is an emerging technology which offers unprecedented potential for integration of spatial and structural biology – it promises major advances in molecular pathology and drug discovery.
Biochemical Microscopy for imaging across Molecular Scales
Developing a transformative cryogenic 3D biochemical microscope, harnessing the power of high-resolution electron microscopy and mass spectrometry imaging