Small creatures, Big problems, Biological solutions
Anastasia M. W. Cooper, Ph.D.
Molecular Insect Toxicologist
Dr. Cooper is a postdoctoral researcher in the Entomology Department at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA. She obtained her B.S. in Biological Sciences from Mississippi State University in Starkville, MS, in 2010, where she participated in undergraduate research related to Parasitology, Disease Ecology, and Plant Ecology. She began her graduate research in Professor Travis Marsico’s laboratory in the Department of Biological Sciences at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, AR. She received her M.A. in Biology (with Molecular Biosciences as a specialty) there in 2014. She then undertook her doctoral research on mechanisms influencing the efficiency of RNA interference in insects with University Distinguished Professor Kun Yan Zhu in the Department of Entomology at Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS, where she received her Ph.D. in Entomology in 2020. She continued as a Research Associate with Kun Yan Zhu for a few months after graduation before joining Associate Professor Kristopher Silver’s laboratory in the Department of Entomology at Kansas State University in 2021 as a Postdoctoral Fellow. She is currently working with Kristopher Silver from Kansas State and Research Molecular Biologist Dana Mitzel from the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, KS, to identify changes in the blood-feeding behavior of mosquitoes and biting midges following infection with arboviruses.
Research Interests
Small creatures, like insects, pathogens, and parasites, create big problems for agriculture and the One Health of our planet, such as diseases, yield losses, and environmental impacts. Dr. Cooper is interested in developing biological solutions to these problems by generating new knowledge and using molecules and chemicals already present in nature.
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Specifically, her research interests include the development of novel modes of action for greener insecticides, mechanisms of pesticide resistance, molecular physiology and toxicology, insect immunity, mechanisms of RNA interference, chemical and molecular ecology, plant-insect interactions, secondary plant metabolites, volatile signaling, invasive species, co-evolutionary history, biological control, host-vecotor-pathogen interactions, arthropod-borne diseases, and electrophysiology.
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Publications
Cooper, A. M. W., Song, H., Yu, Z., Biondi, M., Bai, J., Shi, X., Ren, Z., Weerasekara, S. M., Hua, D. H., Silver, K., Zhang, J., Feng, O., Zhu, K. Y. (2021) Comparison of strategies for enhancing RNA interference efficiency in Ostrinia nubilalis. Pest Management Science 77 (2), 635-645.
Cooper, A. M. W., Song, H., Shi, X., Yu, Z., Lorenzen, M., Silver, K., Zhang, J., Zhu, K. Y. (2020) Molecular characterizations of double-stranded RNA degrading nuclease genes from Ostrinia nubilalis. Insects 11(10), 652.
Cooper A. M. W., Silver K., Zhang J., Park, Y., Zhu, K. Y.(2019) Molecular mechanisms influencing RNA interference efficiency in insects. Pest Management Science 78(1):18-28.