Richard Cooper, MD, Named Senior Scientist of the Year at Loyola

MAYWOOD, Ill. --Richard S. Cooper, MD, who has conducted groundbreaking research on the evolution of cardiovascular disease in people of African descent, has been named 2011 Scientist of the Year at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

Cooper is chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology. Cooper and colleagues have recruited more than 20,000 participants in community-based studies in West Africa, the Caribbean and metropolitan Chicago. The work has demonstrated the role of changing environmental conditions on the evolution of cardiovascular risk.

Cooper serves as a consultant to the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on issues related to controlling cardiovascular disease in developing countries.

Before joining Loyola in 1989, Cooper was at Northwestern University, Cook County Hospital and the University of Illinois.

Edward Campbell, PhD, assistant professor of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, has been named 2011 Junior Scientist of the Year. The focus of Campbell's research is a protein called TRIM5a, which destroys HIV in rhesus monkeys. The research could lead to new TRIM5a-based treatments that would knock out HIV in humans.

Campbell received his doctorate from the University of Illinois Chicago College Of Medicine. He has received three National Institutes of Health grants and has published eight peer-reviewed papers since joining Loyola in November 2008.

Cooper and Campbell were honored during Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine's St. Albert's Day, an annual campuswide celebration of research.