Department of Pediatrics

Clinical Interests

Dr. Cooper received her MD and PhD training at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Her PhD work focused on understanding the biology of a subset of human immune cells known as “natural killer” or NK cells. After graduating from medical school she moved to St. Louis and completed her residency and fellowship training at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University. Dr. Cooper has a clinical interest in primary disorders of the immune system and sees patients in the rheumatology and immunology clinics. She is the Director of the Clinical Immunology program and the Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Research Center for Primary Immunodeficiencies at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

Education

• BA, The College of Wooster, 1995
• PhD, The Ohio State University, 2002
• MD, Cum Laude, AOA, MD/PhD Fellow, The Ohio State University, 2004

Training

• Resident in Pediatrics, St. Louis Children's Hospital, Washington University, 2004 - 2006
• Fellowship in Pediatric Rheumatology, Washington University, 2006 - 2010

Licensure and Board Certification

• 2007 - PresAmerican Board of Pediatrics, General Pediatrics
• 2010 - PresMO, Missouri State Medical License
• 2011 - PresAmerican Board of Pediatrics - Pediatric Rheumatology

Honors and Awards

• National Merit Finalist, 1991
• Lewis LaShell Chemistry Scholarship, The College of Wooster, 1994
• National Science Foundation Research Undergraduate Fellowship, 1994
• Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society, 1995
• Bertha Bouroncle Internal Medicine Research Fellowship, 1998 - 1999
• 1st Place, Oral Presentation, Landare Day Medical Student Research Forum, 1999
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Medical Student Research Fellow, 1999 - 2000
• American Society of Hematology (ASH) Medical Student Award, 2001
• Carroll L. Birch Award, for the best original research paper by a student member of the American Medical Women's Association (AMWA), 2001
• Roche Molecular Biochemicals Distinguished Graduate Seminar Award, 2001
• Phi Kappa Phi National Graduate Honor Society, 2002
• Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society, 2003
• Grant Morrow III, MD, Award for Excellence in Pediatrics, The Ohio State University, 2004
• Internal Medicine Research Award, The Ohio State University, 2004
• Medical Scientist Award, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, 2004
• Watman Achievement Award, Alpha Omega Alpha Society, The Ohio State University, 2004
• David Gilstrap Award, Washington University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, 2007
• Pediatric NIH Loan Repayment Grant (LRP), NIH/NIAID, 2007 - 2013
• Scholar of the NIH Child Health Research Center, Washington University Department of Pediatrics, 2009 - 2013
• Best Original Basic Science Abstract, Washington University Department of Pediatrics Research Retreat, 2010
• Children's Discovery Institute and St. Louis Children's Hospital Faculty Recruit Award, 2010 - 2015
• Children’s Discovery Institute of Washington University and St. Louis Children’s Hospital Interdisciplinary Research Award, 2012 - 2015
• The American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Early Career Faculty Travel Grant, 2014
• “Lecturer of the Month”, St. Louis Children’s Hospital Residency Program, March 2016, 2016
• Moderator, "Advances in clinical care through whole exome sequencing", American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Annual Meeting, November 15, 2016., 2016
• Moderator, "Immunogenetic Basic Science Symposium", American Society for Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics (ASHI), September 26, 2016., 2016
• Moderator, Guided Poster Tour, 2017 Clinical Immunology Society Meeting, March 25, 2017., 2017
• Elected Member, Society for Pediatric Research (SPR), 2017 - Pres
• Emil Unanue Prize for Innovative Research in Immunology, 2019

Recent Publications view all (37)

Publication Co-Authors

Marcia C. Willing, M.D., Ph. D.

Mary C. Dinauer, M.D., Ph.D.

Andrew J. White, M.D.

Thomas Ferkol, M.D.

Elizabeth C. Utterson, M.D.

Maleewan Kitcharoensakkul, MD, MSCI

Joshua B. Alinger

Anthony R. French, M.D., Ph.D.

David B. Wilson, M.D., Ph.D.

Gordon R. Bloomberg, M.D.

Kevin Baszis, M.D.

S. Celeste Morley, M.D., Ph.D.

Vikas Dharnidharka, M.D., M.P.H.

Washington University has a long tradition of collaboration amongst colleagues.The faculty above have co-authored publications with Megan A. Cooper, M.D., Ph.D.

1. Bosticardo M, Yamazaki Y, Cowan J, Giardino G, Corsino C, Scalia G, Prencipe R, Ruffner M, Hill DA, Sakovich I, Yemialyanava I, Tam JS, Padem N, Elder ME, Sleasman JW, Perez E, Niebur H, Seroogy CM, Sharapova S, Gebbia J, Kleiner GI, Peake J, Abbott JK, Gelfand EW, Crestani E, Biggs C, Butte MJ, Hartog N, Hayward A, Chen K, Heimall J, Seeborg F, Bartnikas LM, Cooper MA, Pignata C, Bhandoola A, Notarangelo LD. Heterozygous FOXN1 Variants Cause Low TRECs and Severe T Cell Lymphopenia, Revealing a Crucial Role of FOXN1 in Supporting Early Thymopoiesis. Am J Hum Genet. 2019;105(3):549-561. PMCID:PMC6731368  PMID:31447097 
2. Berrien-Elliott MM, Sun Y, Neal C, Ireland A, Trissal MC, Sullivan RP, Wagner JA, Leong JW, Wong P, Mah-Som AY, Wong TN, Schappe T, Keppel CR, Cortez VS, Stamatiades EG, Li MO, Colonna M, Link DC, French AR, Cooper MA, Wang WL, Boldin MP, Reddy P, Fehniger TA. MicroRNA-142 Is Critical for the Homeostasis and Function of Type 1 Innate Lymphoid Cells. Immunity. 2019. PMID:31402259 
3. Ferré EMN, Break TJ, Burbelo PD, Allgäuer M, Kleiner DE, Jin D, Xu Z, Folio LR, Mollura DJ, Swamydas M, Gu W, Hunsberger S, Lee CR, Bondici A, Hoffman KW, Lim JK, Dobbs K, Niemela JE, Fleisher TA, Hsu AP, Snow LN, Darnell DN, Ojaimi S, Cooper MA, Bozzola M, Kleiner GI, Martinez JC, Deterding RR, Kuhns DB, Heller T, Winer KK, Rajan A, Holland SM, Notarangelo LD, Fennelly KP, Olivier KN, Lionakis MS. Lymphocyte-driven regional immunopathology in pneumonitis caused by impaired central immune tolerance. Sci Transl Med. 2019;11(495). PMCID:PMC6647037  PMID:31167928 
4. Forbes LR, Vogel TP, Cooper MA, Castro-Wagner J, Schussler E, Weinacht KG, Plant AS, Su HC, Allenspach EJ, Slatter M, Abinun M, Lilic D, Cunningham-Rundles C, Eckstein O, Olbrich P, Guillerman RP, Patel NC, Demirdag YY, Zerbe C, Freeman AF, Holland SM, Szabolcs P, Gennery A, Torgerson TR, Milner JD, Leiding JW. Jakinibs for the treatment of immune dysregulation in patients with gain-of-function signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) or STAT3 mutations. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2018;142(5):1665-1669. PMCID:PMC6322659  PMID:30092289 
5. Throm AA, Moncrieffe H, Orandi AB, Pingel JT, Geurs TL, Miller HL, Daugherty AL, Malkova ON, Lovell DJ, Thompson SD, Grom AA, Cooper MA, Oh ST, French AR. Identification of enhanced IFN-γ signaling in polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis with mass cytometry. JCI Insight. 2018;3(15). PMCID:PMC6129135  PMID:30089725 
6. Orange JS, Mace EM, French AR, Yokoyama WM, Fehniger TA, Cooper MA. Comment on: Evidence of innate lymphoid cell redundancy in humans. Nat Immunol. 2018;19(8):788-789. PMID:30026477 
7. Xia J, Miller CA, Baty J, Ramesh A, Jotte MRM, Fulton RS, Vogel TP, Cooper MA, Walkovich KJ, Makaryan V, Bolyard AA, Dinauer MC, Wilson DB, Vlachos A, Myers KC, Rothbaum RJ, Bertuch AA, Dale DC, Shimamura A, Boxer LA, Link DC. Somatic mutations and clonal hematopoiesis in congenital neutropenia. Blood. 2018;131(4):408-416. PMCID:PMC5790127  PMID:29092827 
8. Mah AY, Rashidi A, Keppel MP, Saucier N, Moore EK, Alinger JB, Tripathy SK, Agarwal SK, Jeng EK, Wong HC, Miller JS, Fehniger TA, Mace EM, French AR, Cooper MA. Glycolytic requirement for NK cell cytotoxicity and cytomegalovirus control. JCI Insight. 2017;2(23). PMID:29212951 
9. Tangye SG, Forbes LR, Leiding J, Preece K, Kumar AR, Gambineri E, Milner JD, Cooper MA, Seppänen M. Low IgE Is Insufficiently Sensitive to Guide Genetic Testing of STAT3 Gain-of-Function Mutations. Clin Chem. 2017;63(9):1539-1540. PMID:28667185 
10. Ma CA, Stinson JR, Zhang Y, Abbott JK, Weinreich MA, Hauk PJ, Reynolds PR, Lyons JJ, Nelson CG, Ruffo E, Dorjbal B, Glauzy S, Yamakawa N, Arjunaraja S, Voss K, Stoddard J, Niemela J, Zhang Y, Rosenzweig SD, McElwee JJ, DiMaggio T, Matthews HF, Jones N, Stone KD, Palma A, Oleastro M, Prieto E, Bernasconi AR, Dubra G, Danielian S, Zaiat J, Marti MA, Kim B, Cooper MA, Romberg N, Meffre E, Gelfand EW, Snow AL, Milner JD. Germline hypomorphic CARD11 mutations in severe atopic disease. Nat Genet. 2017;49(8):1192-1201. PMCID:PMC5664152  PMID:28628108 
11. Orandi AB, Vogel TP, Keppel MP, Utterson EC, Cooper MA. Azathioprine-Associated Complete NK Cell Deficiency. J Clin Immunol. 2017;37(6):514-516. PMID:28639167 
12. Lovric S, Goncalves S, Gee HY, Oskouian B, Srinivas H, Choi WI, Shril S, Ashraf S, Tan W, Rao J, Airik M, Schapiro D, Braun DA, Sadowski CE, Widmeier E, Jobst-Schwan T, Schmidt JM, Girik V, Capitani G, Suh JH, Lachaussée N, Arrondel C, Patat J, Gribouval O, Furlano M, Boyer O, Schmitt A, Vuiblet V, Hashmi S, Wilcken R, Bernier FP, Innes AM, Parboosingh JS, Lamont RE, Midgley JP, Wright N, Majewski J, Zenker M, Schaefer F, Kuss N, Greil J, Giese T, Schwarz K, Catheline V, Schanze D, Franke I, Sznajer Y, Truant AS, Adams B, Désir J, Biemann R, Pei Y, Ars E, Lloberas N, Madrid A, Dharnidharka VR, Connolly AM, Willing MC, Cooper MA, Lifton RP, Simons M, Riezman H, Antignac C, Saba JD, Hildebrandt F. Mutations in sphingosine-1-phosphate lyase cause nephrosis with ichthyosis and adrenal insufficiency. J Clin Invest. 2017;127(3):912-928. PMCID:PMC5330730  PMID:28165339 
13. Romee R, Rosario M, Berrien-Elliott MM, Wagner JA, Jewell BA, Schappe T, Leong JW, Abdel-Latif S, Schneider SE, Willey S, Neal CC, Yu L, Oh ST, Lee YS, Mulder A, Claas F, Cooper MA, Fehniger TA. Cytokine-induced memory-like natural killer cells exhibit enhanced responses against myeloid leukemia. Sci Transl Med. 2016;8(357):357ra123. PMCID:PMC5436500  PMID:27655849 
14. Fotis L, Baszis KW, French AR, Cooper MA, White AJ. Mesenteric vasculitis in children with systemic lupus erythematosus. Clin Rheumatol. 2016;35(3):785-93. doi:10.1007/s10067-015-2892-3  PMID:25687984 
15. Keppel MP, Saucier N, Mah AY, Vogel TP, Cooper MA. Activation-specific metabolic requirements for NK Cell IFN-γ production. J Immunol. 2015;194(4):1954-1962. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.1402099  PMID:25595780 
16. Milner JD, Vogel TP, Forbes L, Ma CA, Stray-Pedersen A, Niemela JE, Lyons JJ, Engelhardt KR, Zhang Y, Topcagic N, Roberson ED, Matthews H, Verbsky JW, Dasu T, Vargas-Hernandez A, Varghese N, McClain KL, Karam LB, Nahmod K, Makedonas G, Mace EM, Sorte HS, Perminow G, Rao VK, O'Connell MP, Price S, Su HC, Butrick M, McElwee J, Hughes JD, Willet J, Swan D, Xu Y, Santibanez-Koref M, Slowik V, Dinwiddie DL, Ciaccio CE, Saunders CJ, Septer S, Kingsmore SF, White AJ, Cant AJ, Hambleton S, Cooper MA. Early-onset lymphoproliferation and autoimmunity caused by germline STAT3 gain-of-function mutations. Blood. 2015;125(4):591-599. doi:10.1182/blood-2014-09-602763  PMID:25359994 
17. Tarbox JA, Keppel MP, Topcagic N, Mackin C, Ben Abdallah M, Baszis KW, White AJ, French AR, Cooper MA. Elevated double negative T cells in pediatric autoimmunity. J Clin Immunol. 2014;34(5):594-9. doi:10.1007/s10875-014-0038-z  PMCID:PMC4047151  PMID:24760111 
18. Deady LE, Todd EM, Davis CG, Zhou JY, Topcagic N, Edelson BT, Ferkol TW, Cooper MA, Muenzer JT, Morley SC. L-plastin is essential for alveolar macrophage production and control of pulmonary pneumococcal infection. Infect Immun. 2014;82(5):1982-93. PMCID:PMC3993441  PMID:24595139 
19. Leong JW, Chase JM, Romee R, Schneider SE, Sullivan RP, Cooper MA, Fehniger TA. Preactivation with IL-12, IL-15, and IL-18 induces CD25 and a functional high-affinity IL-2 receptor on human cytokine-induced memory-like natural killer cells. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2014;20(4):463-73. doi:10.1016/j.bbmt.2014.01.006  PMCID:PMC3959288  PMID:24434782 
20. Lim E, Tao Y, White AJ, French AR, Cooper MA. Hypogammaglobulinemia in pediatric systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus. 2013;22(13):1382-7. doi:10.1177/0961203313507990  PMCID:PMC3840537  PMID:24106215 
21. Keppel MP, Yang L, Cooper MA. Murine NK cell intrinsic cytokine-induced memory-like responses are maintained following homeostatic proliferation. J Immunol. 2013;190(9):4754-62. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.1201742  PMCID:PMC3633638  PMID:23530145 
22. Romee R, Schneider SE, Leong JW, Chase JM, Keppel CR, Sullivan RP, Cooper MA, Fehniger TA. Cytokine activation induces human memory-like NK cells. Blood. 2012;120(24):4751-60. doi:10.1182/blood-2012-04-419283  PMCID:PMC3520618  PMID:22983442 
23. Kitcharoensakkul M, Ree N, Bloomberg GR, Dehner LP, Heidingsfelder JA, White AJ, Cooper MA. Vancomycin-induced DRESS with evidence of T-cell activation in a 22-month-old patient. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2012;109(4):280-1. doi:10.1016/j.anai.2012.07.016  PMID:23010236 
24. Cooper MA, Elliott JM, Keyel PA, Yang L, Carrero JA, Yokoyama WM. Cytokine-induced memory-like natural killer cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009;106(6):1915-9. doi:10.1073/pnas.0813192106  PMCID:PMC2644138  PMID:19181844 
25. Cooper MA, Willingham DL, Brown DE, French AR, Shih FF, White AJ. Rituximab for the treatment of juvenile dermatomyositis: a report of four pediatric patients. Arthritis Rheum. 2007;56(9):3107-11. doi:10.1002/art.22856  PMID:17763414 
26. Fehniger TA, Cooper MA, Nuovo GJ, Cella M, Facchetti F, Colonna M, Caligiuri MA. CD56bright natural killer cells are present in human lymph nodes and are activated by T cell-derived IL-2: a potential new link between adaptive and innate immunity. Blood. 2003;101(8):3052-7. doi:10.1182/blood-2002-09-2876  PMID:12480696 
27. Cooper MA, Bush JE, Fehniger TA, VanDeusen JB, Waite RE, Liu Y, Aguila HL, Caligiuri MA. In vivo evidence for a dependence on interleukin 15 for survival of natural killer cells. Blood. 2002;100(10):3633-8. doi:10.1182/blood-2001-12-0293  PMID:12393617 
28. Comella K, Nakamura M, Melnik K, Chosy J, Zborowski M, Cooper MA, Fehniger TA, Caligiuri MA, Chalmers JJ. Effects of antibody concentration on the separation of human natural killer cells in a commercial immunomagnetic separation system. Cytometry. 2001;45(4):285-93. PMID:11746098 
29. Cooper MA, Fehniger TA, Caligiuri MA. The biology of human natural killer-cell subsets. Trends Immunol. 2001;22(11):633-40. PMID:11698225 
30. Cooper MA, Fehniger TA, Turner SC, Chen KS, Ghaheri BA, Ghayur T, Carson WE, Caligiuri MA. Human natural killer cells: a unique innate immunoregulatory role for the CD56(bright) subset. Blood. 2001;97(10):3146-51. PMID:11342442 
31. Cooper MA, Fehniger TA, Ponnappan A, Mehta V, Wewers MD, Caligiuri MA. Interleukin-1beta costimulates interferon-gamma production by human natural killer cells. Eur J Immunol. 2001;31(3):792-801. PMID:11241284 
32. Fehniger TA, Suzuki K, Ponnappan A, VanDeusen JB, Cooper MA, Florea SM, Freud AG, Robinson ML, Durbin J, Caligiuri MA. Fatal leukemia in interleukin 15 transgenic mice follows early expansions in natural killer and memory phenotype CD8+ T cells. J Exp Med. 2001;193(2):219-31. PMCID:PMC2193336  PMID:11208862 
33. Carson WE, Dierksheide JE, Jabbour S, Anghelina M, Bouchard P, Ku G, Yu H, Baumann H, Shah MH, Cooper MA, Durbin J, Caligiuri MA. Coadministration of interleukin-18 and interleukin-12 induces a fatal inflammatory response in mice: critical role of natural killer cell interferon-gamma production and STAT-mediated signal transduction. Blood. 2000;96(4):1465-73. PMID:10942393 
34. Fehniger TA, Bluman EM, Porter MM, Mrózek E, Cooper MA, VanDeusen JB, Frankel SR, Stock W, Caligiuri MA. Potential mechanisms of human natural killer cell expansion in vivo during low-dose IL-2 therapy. J Clin Invest. 2000;106(1):117-24. doi:10.1172/JCI6218  PMCID:PMC314354  PMID:10880055 
35. Fehniger TA, Yu H, Cooper MA, Suzuki K, Shah MH, Caligiuri MA. Cutting edge: IL-15 costimulates the generalized Shwartzman reaction and innate immune IFN-gamma production in vivo. J Immunol. 2000;164(4):1643-7. PMID:10657604 
36. Fehniger TA, Shah MH, Turner MJ, VanDeusen JB, Whitman SP, Cooper MA, Suzuki K, Wechser M, Goodsaid F, Caligiuri MA. Differential cytokine and chemokine gene expression by human NK cells following activation with IL-18 or IL-15 in combination with IL-12: implications for the innate immune response. J Immunol. 1999;162(8):4511-20. PMID:10201989 
37. Schanze KS, Lucia LA, Cooper M, Walter KA, Ji HF, Sabina O. Intramolecular energy transfer to trans-stilbene J Phys Chem A. 1998;102:5577-5584.