Cooper Penner is an MD-PhD candidate in the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Neuroscience currently studying the pathogenesis of ALS under the guidance of Dr. Alice Chen-Plotkin. Cooper also has a personal connection to the disease. He acted as his mother’s primary caregiver for the three years she suffered from ALS, and is himself a carrier of a pathological expansion of the C9orf72 repeat sequence, the most common single genetic cause of ALS, responsible for approximately 10% of all ALS cases.
Cooper has found the Target ALS Data Engine to be an incredibly valuable tool for accelerating his ALS research. He has used the bulk RNA-Seq data to generate new hypotheses about disease biology and explore potential targets for ALS treatments. He says, “The way I’ve used the resource thus far has really helped me with hypothesis generation,” noting that it was the first step in discovering a new target with significant promise. By integrating data from Target ALS with his own research and other datasets, Cooper has been able to test biological hypotheses quickly and efficiently. He adds, “Target ALS runs a very tight ship, so I have trusted this resource implicitly.”
For Cooper, one of the major benefits of the Target ALS Data Engine is its well-curated and easily accessible data, which has made a tangible difference in how fast he can move his research forward. “It’s a really big deal, because that stuff just takes so much time,” he explains. While he has not yet dived into some of the platform’s cloud computing-based tools, he explains that the workbench might soon become necessary for certain types of analysis, especially as he dives deeper into more complicated datasets like single-cell data.
While Cooper recognizes the platform’s utility, he also notes the unique opportunity that Target ALS provides in fostering collaboration and sharing high-quality data. He believes that the Target ALS Data Engine is not just a valuable resource for his own work but for the broader research community as well, providing researchers with a solid foundation to build upon and collaborate more effectively.
