Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show Dr. David K. C. Cooper, MD, PhD. - MGH/Harvard - Xenotransplantation To Save And Extend Lives
Dr. David K. C. Cooper, MA, PhD, MD, MS, DSc (Med), FRCS, FACS, FACC, FAST, (https://researchers.mgh.harvard.edu/profile/27073950/David-Cooper) is a pioneering heart transplant surgeon and researcher in the field of xenotransplantation, which is defined as any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation or infusion into a human recipient of live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source. Dr. Cooper studied medicine in the UK at Guy’s Hospital Medical School (now part of King’s College London), and trained in general and cardiothoracic surgery in Cambridge and London. Between 1972 and 1980, Dr. Cooper was a Fellow and Director of Studies in Medical Sciences at Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1980 he took up an appointment in cardiac surgery at the University of Cape Town where, under Professor Christiaan Barnard, he had responsibility for patients undergoing heart transplantation. In 1987, Dr. Cooper relocated to the Oklahoma Transplantation Institute in the USA where he continued to work in both the clinical and research fields. After 17 years as a surgeon-scientist, he decided to concentrate on research, initially at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, subsequently at the University of Pittsburgh, and then at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where his major interest was in developing cross-species transplantation with the aim of using pigs as sources of organs, cells, and corneas for transplantation in humans. He currently continues his research programs at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cooper has published almost 1,000 medical and scientific papers and chapters, has authored or edited 18 books, has given more than 350 invited presentations worldwide, and has received several awards for his work.