Max Cooper studies immune system development and function to gain insight into the pathogenesis of blood cell malignancies, immune deficiencies and autoimmune diseases. Research highlights of Cooper and his collaborators include the recognition of T and B lymphocytes as developmentally-separate, functionally-intertwined cell lineages, identification of B cell precursors and their hematopoietic origin, demonstration that IgM-bearing B cells can switch to produce other classes of antibodies and discovery of an alternative adaptive immune system in the jawless fishes, lampreys and hagfish.
He is a former president of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) and member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Royal Society of Medicine and French Academy of Sciences.
Honors include the Founder’s Award of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine (1966), Sandoz Prize in Immunology (1990), American College of Physicians Science Award (1994), AAI Lifetime Achievement Award (2000), AAI-Dana Foundation Award in Human Immunology Research (2006), Avery-Landsteiner Prize (2008) and the Robert Koch Prize (2010).
Dr Max Cooper ForMemRS
