Mark Cooper studies the aberrant bioelectrical behavior of cellular networks in neuroinflammatory pain and motor disorders.  Dr. Cooper received his PhD in Biophysics at the University of California at Berkeley, in 1985.  As a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at Berkeley, Dr. Cooper studied interactions of external electrical stimuli on tissue cell physiology.  While working as a HHMI Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale Medical School, Dr. Cooper co-discovered a calcium-based excitability system within astrocyte networks, as these CNS glial cells responded to neurotransmitters.  After joining the biology faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle, Dr. Cooper developed laser confocal microscopy methods to image the intercellular signaling and morphogenesis of embryonic tissues.   Dr. Cooper currently studies (a) how neuroinflammation alters the excitability of neuronal-glial-vascular networks, and (b) how broad-spectrum glial attenuators (like LDN) can serve as first-line interventions for neuroinflammation-linked pain and movement disorders.