Sarah Cooley, M.D.

Today as an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation in the Medical School, Cooley continues to research the role of NK cells and other parts of the innate immune system in treating cancer. She also is one of seven scholars in the University’s Career Advancement Program for Clinical Research Scholars.

Cooley is grateful for Miller’s mentorship during medical school. “I was lucky to have a mentor early in my career,” she says. “From the beginning, he stressed the importance of excellence and of securing protected time to do research.” After completing her internal medicine residency at the University of California, San Francisco in 2003, she returned to Minnesota to continue working in Miller’s lab. In 2005, she published results of her work on NK cell recovery, as first author, in the journal Blood.

Miller encouraged her to apply to the CAPS program, and along with Daniel Weisdorf, M.D., director of the adult blood and marrow transplant program, and Chap Le, Ph.D., director of biostatistics at the Cancer Center, agreed to provide mentorship to Cooley.

Cooley believes that tapping into the expertise of successful, established researchers is an invaluable aspect of the program. “I’m also looking forward to working as a group and learning from the other scholars. Even though we’re working in different areas, I’m sure there will be common concerns among us,” she adds.

Under the program, Cooley will be principal investigator for two clinical trials examining the clinical efficacy and the underlying mechanisms of two related therapies involving stimulation of the innate immune system to treat cancer.