SIU Med School Receives Grant to Study Sexually Transmitted Diseases

A faculty member at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield has been awarded a five-year federal grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the prevalence of HIV in individuals who have other sexually transmitted diseases. The total budget for the grant is $975,249.

This study is a subcontract of a multi-center grant awarded to the University of California in San Francisco. Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York is also participating in the study.

Morris D. Cooper, Ph.D., professor and chair of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology, is a co-principal investigator for the project.

The study will evaluate the immune response of sexually transmitted infections in cultured human cells to determine whether the prevalence of cells with sexually transmitted diseases increases the risk of HIV transmission. Results of this study may lead to the development of new strategies to treat sexually transmitted diseases.

Cooper's research has been funded for more than 20 years by the National Institutes of Health, providing a total of $3.4 million in federal funding. His research has focused on understanding the methods of sexually transmitted infections in the reproductive tract.

Cooper joined the SlU faculty in 1973 and was named chair of medical microbiology and immunology in 1998. He completed his doctorate at the University of Georgia in Athens (1971) followed by a research fellowship at Harvard University in Boston, Mass. (1972). He received his master's from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tenn. (1967) and his bachelor's from King College in Bristol, Tenn. (1965).

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