Brandon S. Cooper
Assistant Professor, PhD Indiana University-Bloomington

​I am an Assistant Professor of Cell, Molecular, and Microbial Biology at the University of Montana in Missoula. Before that I was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow with Michael Turelli at UC Davis. My lab is broadly interested in understanding the acquisition, spread, and maintenance of Wolbachia infections in nature. Several projects also evaluate local adaptation within, and reproductive isolation between, Wolbachia-infected Drosophila hosts. 

Google Scholar

Jessica Bailey
Graduate Student (starting fall 2018), GoT Aficionado, BS U. Montana

Jessie was the first person to join the Cooper lab. Before that she worked  in the Certel and Voronina labs here at UM. Jessie will transition from her current role as Lab Manager to graduate student in the Fall of 2018. Jessie brings many skills to our group and we can't wait to see what she does for her dissertation work.

Papers: Wang et al. 2016, Gupta et al. 2016

Will Conner
Bioinformatics Technician, Cat wrangler, BS UC Davis

Will is collaborating with us on several projects including analysis of Wolbachia acquisition in the D. yakuba clade and the D. montium subgroup. More generally, Will is deeply involved in all of our computational projects.

​Papers: too many to keep up with anymore.

Michael T.J. Hague
Postdoctoral Fellow (starting fall 2018), PhD ( expected fall 2018) U Virginia
Website

Mike will join us in the fall of 2018 to work on problems related to host-Wolbachia coevolution. For his dissertation work, in Butch Brodie's lab at UVA, Mike  has evaluated patterns of adaptation in the coevolutionary arms race between garter snakes and toxic Pacific newts. Mike has done some really beautiful work that you can read more about on his website.

Isaac Humble
Undergraduate Researcher

Isaac joined the lab in the spring of 2018 and has broad interest in crazy microbes that live on and inside hosts. We aren't sure exactly what Isaac will do moving forward, but whatever it is will be great. In his *spare* time Isaac owns a business that does beautiful wood and metal work. 

Johnathan Kaiser
Graduate Student, BS U. Iowa, MS U. Idaho

Johnathan joined the lab in the fall of 2017. His Masters research at the University of Idaho focused on analysis of viral coinfection in Drosophila melanogaster. In our lab, Johnathan plans to assess variation in Wolbachia virus blocking and other traits that influence the spread of Wolbachia infections through host populations.

Maria Kirby
Laboratory Technician, BS Eastern Washington U.

Maria joined the lab as a part-time technician in the fall of 2017. Maria gained a lot of experience in basic microbiology as a laboratory manager during her BS at EWU. Maria will be working with us on several projects that are focused on understanding Wolbachia spread.

Megan Meany
Lab Manager, BS UC Davis

Megan joined the lab in the fall of 2017 after working as a research technician in Artyom Kopp's lab at UC Davis. There she worked on the evolution of cockroach development with Judy Wexler. In our lab, Megan is working on transinfecting Drosophila hosts with Wolbachia. Megan is also collaborating with Sophia on a project assessing Wolbachia effects on the physiology and fitness of D. mauritiana hosts. Megan plans to start graduate school in the fall of 2019—lucky the lab that gets her.

Sophia Richter
Junior, Hellgate High School

Sophia joined us in the fall of 2017 as a high-school student to learn more about scientific research. She is already working on multiple projects in the lab related to Wolbachia effects on host physiology and fitness. In the spring of 2018 Sophia won multiple awards for her work on wMau effects on D. mauritiana fitness. Woot!!

Tim Wheeler
Research Assistant III, BS & MS U. Montana

Tim recently finished an MS in John McCutcheon's lab working on the taxonomy of lichens. Tim brings an amazing amount of knowledge to the lab with emphasis on fungi in and around western Montana. Tim is also a fantastic photographer. See more here.

Honorary members

Francis JH
F1

​Research interests: TBD

Training: We are working on it.

Gone, but not forgotten...

Lindsay Axelrod, Undergraduate, UC Davis, Currently in industry
​Jennifer Blanc, Undergraduate, UC Davis
Peter Burkard, Undergraduate, UC Davis, Currently in medical school
Nick Fisher, Undergraduate, Indiana University, Currently in medical school
Paul Ginsberg, Research Technician, UC Davis, Currently a PhD student at U Georgia
Andy Katznelson, Undergraduate, UC Davis, Currently a graduate student at U Cambridge
Kevin Kim, Undergraduate, UC Davis, Currently a research technician with Michael Turelli
Catherine Mayo, Undergraduate, UC Davis, Currently in industry
Huong Nguyen, Undergraduate, UC Davis, Currently an MS student at UC Berkeley
Jasmine Osei-Enin, Undergraduate, McNair Scholar, UC Davis
Brooke Peckenpaugh, Research Technician, UC Davis, Currently a PhD student at Indiana U
Federica Sartori, Undergraduate, UC Davis
Signe White, Research Technician, Indiana University, Currently a PhD student at Emory U
​Luna dog. RIP.

You?
​
We value diverse ideas and experiences and would love for you to join our collaborative environment. Please contact me directly for information about current openings.

Brandon S. Cooper
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
University of Montana
32 Campus Dr. HS 104
Missoula, MT 59812
brandon.cooper AT mso.umt.edu