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Melissa Cooper, PhD

@melcooperphd.bsky.social

334 followers 266 following 33 posts

NYU PostDoc (Liddelow/Chao) and Leon Levy Fellow in Neuroscience studying ⭐astrocyte⭐ networks! Formerly @ Vanderbilt. Neurodegeneration, visual system, gap junctions, glia, and all things microscopy. MelCooperPhD.com

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Melissa Cooper, PhD @melcooperphd.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Just in case there's anyone left I haven't shown this to: this is the first astrocyte network I ever imaged. I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I still do! #microscopy #glia #neuroscience

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Melissa Cooper, PhD @melcooperphd.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

I'll be giving a talk this afternoon at #ASN2026! If you love astrocytes, microscopy, or new insights on glial cross-hemispheric communication come check it out. Ballroom CD, 4:55 CST. See you there!

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Melissa Cooper, PhD @melcooperphd.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

Now on bioRxiv! Astrocytes in one brain region (cyan) communicate in expansive networks (magenta). Through tool development, tissue clearing, and many hours on our @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social Z1, we now know these networks are repeatable across mice, plastic, and specific. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

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Melissa Cooper, PhD @melcooperphd.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Hippocampal vasculature is so pretty 😍 (mouse hippocampus perfused with Tomato Lectin and cleared) #Neuroscience #Microscopy

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Melissa Cooper, PhD @melcooperphd.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

An old favorite of mine - this retinal astrocyte (GFAP) looks like it’s dancing among blood vessels. #science #glia #microscopy

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Melissa Cooper, PhD @melcooperphd.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Imaging these astrocytes on the surface of cleared brains was a blast!

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Melissa Cooper, PhD @melcooperphd.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Fresh off the press! We found that degeneration in one retina causes astrocytes to respond retinotopically across *both* hemispheres of the brain. Perhaps astrocytes across the CNS are able to coordinate their responses more than we anticipated... www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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Melissa Cooper, PhD @melcooperphd.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Hello, everyone! Please enjoy one of my favorite micrographs while I finally get set up over here. Vasculature (magenta, perfused lectin), GFAP (cyan), and cx43 (green) in a conditional astrocyte cx43 knockout mouse, demonstrating that cx43 is lost from astrocytes but not pericytes after tamoxifen.

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