Bio: Michael Cooke

Michael P. Cooke received his Ph.D in Biochemistry from the University of Washington, Seattle in 1991 working with Dr. Roger Perlmutter where he studied the role of the src-family kinase, fyn in T cell development and activation. He did postdoctoral work with Dr. Chris Goodnow at Stanford University where he studied molecular mechanism of immune tolerance. From Stanford he went to the hematopoietic stem cell company SyStemix Inc. in Palo Alto, Ca where he was Director of Functional Genomics. He joined the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in 1999 and is currently Director of Immunology. He is responsible for oversight of immunology research at GNF leading a team of more than 40 scientists to discover targets and develop therapeutics to treat autoimmunity and boost vaccines. He has published more than 40 papers in top journals including Cell, Science, and Nature and serves as a member of the research management team at GNF. His own research includes the application of genomics tools and chemical screens to study the biology of hematopoietic stem cells and the adaptive immune system and the translation of these findings into novel therapeutics to treat immune disorders and improve HSC transplant outcomes.