The First Transplant: from Conception to Implementation

Scott Cooper has been involved in the cord blood research and transplant field since its beginnings in the 1980’s. Scott holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Masters degree in Informatics from Indiana University, Indianapolis. After receiving his undergraduate degree in 1982, Scott took a short-lived position at the Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis in the Department of Infectious Disease. When Hal Broxmeyer was recruited in 1983, Scott was hired into his lab as one of two research technicians. As Hal’s research group grew, he was quickly promoted to Research Associate and Lab Manager. Scott was involved in every aspect of the earliest experiments analyzing cord blood samples. In 1988, Hal tasked him with the logistics of delivering the first sample to Paris, France, for the first ever cord blood transplant into recipient, Matthew Farrow.

Scott spent the next 35 years in Hal Broxmeyer’s lab exploring the richness and untapped potential of cord blood. He has been a co-author on over 150 refereed publications with over 50 of them focusing on aspects of hematopoietic stem cells found in cord blood.

After Hal Broxmeyer’s passing in 2021, Scott took a position as Research Associate and Lab Manager in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Indiana School of Medicine with two researcher/physicians; Dr. Angela Richardson and Dr. Jignesh Tailor. Their focus is primarily on medulloblastoma, glioblastoma, and ependymoma formation with the hopes of defining therapeutic and post-surgical targets to prevent spread and reoccurrence. But his heart will always belong to hematopoiesis.

Scott has been married to his wife, Julie, for 41 years, is the proud father of 2 children and grandfather to 7 grandchildren.

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