Professor Colin Cooper - Profile - http://www.icr.ac.uk/

Colin Cooper - Profile

Professor Colin Cooper is a male cancer specialist and heads the UK’s first dedicated research centre for male cancers, the Everyman Centre. His is also Chairman of the ICR’s Section of Molecular Carcinogenesis, which he established in 1989, and holds The Grand Charity of Freemason’s Chair of Molecular Biology at the ICR.

Professor Cooper’s career at the ICR began in 1978 and has spanned almost thirty of the subsequent years. He has made significant contributions to medical science for many cancer types, including human sarcomas, bladder, kidney, testicular and prostate.

He has a special interest in molecular genetics, and over his career has been instrumental in the identification of many new cancer genes as well as genetic factors that put people at a higher risk of cancer. It is thanks to his work and that of his colleagues that the ICR is responsible for the discovery of more cancer-related genes than any other organisation in the world.

This improved understanding of the molecular basis of cancer is helping in the development of new tailored drugs and underpinned the development of specific molecular tests for individual cancer types including the most accurate method known for diagnosing synovial sarcomas. Professor Cooper’s current interest is in the identification of new biomarkers – indicators of a patient’s biological state – that can be used to select the most appropriate care for prostate cancer patients.

Before joining the ICR, Professor Cooper studied science at the University of Warwick and completed his PhD in biochemistry at the University of Birmingham in 1978. After three years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Section of Chemical Carcinogenesis at the ICR, he moved in 1981 to the United States for three years to study how chemicals bound to and damaged DNA. Professor Cooper’s work during this time lead to the identification and cloning of the human met oncogene. He returned to the ICR in 1984 as a Team Leader in the Chemical Carcinogenesis Section, and became a section chairman in 1989. He later gained a Doctor of Science at the University of Warwick in 1991.

Professor Cooper and colleagues began the Everyman Centre in 1998 in an effort to raise awareness of male cancer, address the lack of funding for male cancer research and conduct cutting-edge studies themselves.

“Prostate cancer has always been a very common cancer, but no one seemed to be interested in it. Only about £1 million was being spent on prostate cancer research in the UK, equivalent to about 5p for every man. It was clear that something needed to change and fast,” he says.

Since 1998, Professor Cooper has also combined his research work with teaching at the University of London and in 1996 became its Chair of Molecular Biology.

He has been a member of several important advisory committees, including the Department of Health Prostate Cancer Advisory Group since 2003. He heads up the £3.6m National Cancer Research Institute’s prostate cancer collaboration, which supports research projects on the disease throughout the UK.  

Professor Cooper has also held a number of high-level governance positions at the ICR, including membership of the Clinical Research Directorate for a decade and Head of the Haddow Laboratories in Sutton for five years. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science in 2004 and sits on three external review panels and the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals.

Apart from his personal accomplishments, Professor Cooper counts among his greatest successes “training young scientists who have gone on to be leaders in their field and made their own scientific achievements.” In the future, he hopes to see the Everyman Centre - which is funded by the ICR’s Everyman campaign - continue to grow and improve the lives of men diagnosed with testicular and prostate cancer.

“If I had an open chequebook today, I would focus on understanding the causes of prostate cancer so that we can prevent men from getting it in the first place and avoid life changing surgery and drug treatment,” he says.

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