معرفی
Vaughn Cooper is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Microbial Genome Dynamics at the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Biological Sciences. His laboratory studies evolutionary biology applied to human health, investigating microbial adaptation during host colonization, biofilm formation, and antimicrobial exposure using experimental evolution and clinical isolates.
Research explores adaptive evolution in infections, biofilm community dynamics, ecological tradeoffs, and mutation rate impacts on diversity. Recent publications (2024-2025) examine antibiotic resistance evolution in pathogens like Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii, phage therapy for persistent infections, and genomic surveillance for outbreak detection.
Work integrates genomic analysis with phenotypic studies to understand resistance mechanisms, phage-bacteria interactions, and pathogen adaptation in chronic infections. The lab also develops K-12 educational programs on experimental evolution.
