Pippa Cosper

Biography

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Medicine. The study of cancer biology has been my passion since I was an undergraduate when I studied the role of inflammation in lung cancer. I then attended the MSTP (MD/PhD) program at the University of Colorado and worked with HHMI professor Leslie Leinwand during graduate school. During that time, I established and characterized a model of cardiac muscle atrophy due to cancer. Throughout medical school I loved caring for cancer patients, and combined with my love for cancer research, led me to specialize in radiation oncology.

I moved to St. Louis for my clinical residency at Washington University, where I received excellent training. I was fortunate to receive entry into the B. Leonard Holman Research Pathway during residency, where I performed RNA sequencing of cervical tumors before and during chemoradiation therapy. This research provided novel insight into how these tumors respond to treatment and what factors may be involved in treatment resistance, such as Human Papillomavirus (HPV) oncogene expression and the anti-tumoral immune response. Following residency, I elected to do post-doctoral study here at the University of Wisconsin through the Bentson Research Fellowship. I worked with Dr. Beth Weaver and studied how chromosomal instability affects radiation sensitivity. This research created the foundation for my own laboratory, where I aim to use a cancer cell’s inherent defects in mitosis as a unique vulnerability to promote cell death.

As a physician-scientist, I treat patients with cancer at the UW Health clinic located in Johnson Creek. My patients are my inspiration for my research, and I hope to discover new ways to sensitize cancer cells to radiation to increase cure.