Kate Cooper

Biography

Dr. Kathryn (Kate) M. Cooper joined the School of Interdisciplinary Informatics at UNO in 2015 and has been a member of the UNO Bioinformatics Research group since September 2005. Her research has focused on application of network science to biomedical data; including network modeling of gene expression data can be functionally interpreted to further understand cellular systems. She has also worked work on developing structural filters in high performance computing environments for analysis of large biological networks; this work explores the relationship between known graph theoretic properties and potential function in protein protein interaction networks as well as correlation networks. She has also collaborated on projects exploring how graphs can be effective tools for modeling systems in broader areas of biomedical and health informatics, such as the spread of infectious disease and the modeling co-occurrence of terms in food products labels. Her current research interests are exploring the impact of diet on the microbiome for prevention of disease using consumer health informatics.

Teaching Interests

bioinformatics education, modular education, bioinformatics for K-12, reproducibility in bioinformatics

Research Interests

consumer health informatics, nutrition informatics and the microbiome

Service Summary

Chair of the Bioinformatics Undergraduate Program Committee (BIOI UPC)

Education

BS, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, Bioinformatics, 2007

Ph D, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, Pathology & Microbiology, Specialty Track in Bioinformatics, 2013