After working as a gas and oil engineer for nearly a decade, Jason Cooper, MD, (Medicine ’13) had an epiphany: “I wanted to have more of an impact on humanity.”

He decided that becoming a doctor would best meet that goal. The job would allow him to apply his engineering problem-solving and analytical skills to patient care. At 32, he enrolled at TTUHSC, where he was drawn to hematology.

“I originally got interested in blood because it has some similarities to oil, in that arteries and veins are pipes in humans where an important fluid flows,” Cooper, a physician since 2019 at Seattle’s Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center, says. “Engineering really got me interested in medicine to begin with. It would help me suss out medical problems.”

As an inpatient oncologist, he treats conditions such as bone cancer, lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma. Cooper also helps with the center’s bone marrow transplant and immunotherapy services.

During his second year of medical school, he did research with Simon Williams, PhD, a TTUHSC professor of medical education, on myelodysplastic syndrome. This condition occurs when the bone marrow produces abnormal blood cells. It causes frequent infections and is associated with several cancers.

After earning his medical degree, Cooper served his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and then a fellowship at the University of Washington and Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center.

Engineering plays a prominent role in Cooper’s work. He relies on chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, a cancer immunotherapy treatment that uses engineered T cells to battle the disease. The genetically modified cells orchestrate an immune response and kill cancerous cells.

Technology and increasing treatment options mean Cooper’s patients are living longer.

“We’ve gotten pretty good at treating people who are older,” he says. “In years past, we might have told folks in their 70s that all of our treatments are too harsh and we couldn’t offer any treatment. But nowadays, we get people in their 70s and 80s with a diagnosis of leukemia, and we definitely have treatments for them.

“The most satisfying part of what I do is talking with people about what is probably the hardest thing they’ve ever had to deal with in their life. People put their trust in you in a way that is very humbling and very profound.”