I am Dr. Melissa Cooper, a postdoctoral fellow and Leon Levy Neuroscience Fellow in Dr. Moses Chao’s lab at NYU Langone Health.

My work characterizes the astrocyte connectome in morphological scope and molecular function.

A complete list of my publications lives here.

Astrocytes in the frontal cortex of a iDISCO+ cleared mouse brain. 200um of depth, coded by color and projected onto a single image.

Astrocytes in the frontal cortex of a iDISCO+ cleared mouse brain. 200um of depth, coded by color and projected onto a single image.

3D projection of iDISCO+ cleared ALDH1L1-eGFP hemisphere.

3D projection of iDISCO+ cleared ALDH1L1-eGFP hemisphere.

Immunopanned primary cortical astrocytes, cultured in serum-free conditions.

Immunopanned primary cortical astrocytes, cultured in serum-free conditions.

PET revealing resource distribution between the two eyes after neurodegenerative insult

PET revealing resource distribution between the two eyes after neurodegenerative insult

PET and CT demonstrating a lack of metabolic resource transfer after astrocyte-specific connexin 43 knockout

PET and CT demonstrating a lack of metabolic resource transfer after astrocyte-specific connexin 43 knockout

Astrocyte/microglia coculture, highlighting gap junctions.

Astrocyte/microglia coculture, highlighting gap junctions.

Co-culture of primary astrocytes and microglia

Co-culture of primary astrocytes and microglia

Patched retinal astrocyte, with its network revealed in blue

Patched retinal astrocyte, with its network revealed in blue

Retinal astrocytes and ganglion cell axons forming the nerve fiber layer

Retinal astrocytes and ganglion cell axons forming the nerve fiber layer

Astrocyte endfeet form gap junction positive contacts with blood vessels

Astrocyte endfeet form gap junction positive contacts with blood vessels

Highlighted Publications

Redistribution of metabolic resources through astrocyte networks mitigates neurodegenerative stress

Cooper et al., 2020, PNAS

Revealed long-distance metabolic redistribution through astrocytes during neurodegeneration that rescued neuronal structure and function; examined the functional impacts of resource donation on both degenerating and donating tissue.

 

Astrocyte remodeling without gliosis precedes optic nerve axonopathy

Quantified astrocyte process and network morphological reorganization occurring early in a genetic model of neurodegeneration.

 

Early astrocyte redistribution in the optic nerve precedes axonopathy in the DBA/2J mouse model of glaucoma

Cooper et al., 2016, Experimental Eye Research

Describes metabolic and morphological alterations in white matter early in a model of optic neuropathy.

Headshot.jpg

Postdoctoral Fellow and Leon Levy Neuroscience Fellow
(NYU Langone Health)



Ph.D. in Neuroscience
(Vanderbilt University, Class of 2019)

B.S. in Biological Sciences, with Honors, and in Psychology; Minors in Biochemistry and in Chemistry
(Florida State University, Class of 2014).

Primary immunopanned astrocytes stained to reveal their gap junctions.