Contact: Maridith Geuder
Carlton Cooper's initial brush with scientific investigations was placing first in a high school competition to make paper from onionskin.
Now, the Mississippi State University doctoral candidate in microbiology is focusing on a biomedical research career that includes study of prostate cancer and deadly viruses. With support from the National Institutes of Health, Cooper has a $30,000 fellowship to study a virus related to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS in humans.
A former Kingstree, S.C., resident who graduates in August, Cooper is among fewer than 40 students nationally awarded a NIH predoctoral fellowship for minority students. He earlier received a NIH Undergraduate Minority Access to Research Careers Scholarship.
Cooper said the fellowship to Mississippi State is based on "originality of research, the credibility of the university and the student's academic qualifications," among other factors. He is investigating the genetic variability in the bovine immunodeficiency virus, or BIV.
"With HIV and related viruses, it's known that survival of the virus increases if it accumulates mutations," said Karen St. Cyr-Coats, Cooper's major professor. In mutating, the virus can escape the body's normal antibody response, she explained.
Because BIV and HIV are related, "Carlton's work is allowing us to understand the way this virus is similar to other viruses," she said.
In addition to Coats, Cooper has worked closely with biologist Walter Diehl and College of Veterinary Medicine researchers Larry Hanson and Todd Pharr.
"It's been good for him to experience a variety of research techniques," Coats said. "He's a person you know should be a scientist. He has an extremely curious nature and is able to converse on a variety of topics."
Cooper holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Morehouse College in Atlanta and a master's degree in cell biology from Clark Atlanta University. Following graduation from Mississippi State, he will begin a postdoctoral program at the University of Michigan.
He said his future research would focus on the relationship between viruses and prostate cancer. "I started studying prostate cancer as a fulfillment of my undergraduate thesis in biology. My long-term goal is to determine if a virus causes prostate cancer."
Cooper said his time at MSU has provided him with extensive experience in virology, the study of viruses and viral diseases. He now looks to the day when he'll have his own lab and when his research may make a difference in understanding diseases that kill.