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Staff Profiles

Professor Rachel Cooper

McArdle Chair in Ageing

  • Address: NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre
    3rd Floor Biomedical Research Building
    Campus for Ageing and Vitality
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE4 5PL
Background

Rachel Cooper is McArdle Chair in Ageing and Professor of Translational Epidemiology within the AGE Research Group in the Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences. Rachel is also co-lead for interdisciplinary research and a member of the Ageing, Sarcopenia and Multimorbidity Theme within the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre. Her aim is to undertake high quality epidemiological research on ageing across the life course that addresses strategically important, novel questions that have the potential to benefit population health.

Rachel has a BA (Hons) in Human Sciences from Oxford University, an MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and a PhD in Life Course Epidemiology from UCL. She has held academic and research positions at LSHTM, UCL Institute of Child Health, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL and Manchester Metropolitan University. In addition, Rachel has worked as a Senior Analyst for the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care, where she gained useful insights on strategies to ensure research has policy relevance and achieves impact.

In 2021 Rachel was named on Clarivate’s annual ‘Highly Cited Researchers List’ in the cross-field category. Since 2016 she has been an editorial board member for the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.

 

Research

Rachel applies a life course epidemiological approach to the study of a range of age-related health outcomes with the aim of identifying opportunities across life to support the development and maintenance of key aspects of health and wellbeing as people age. The ultimate goal of this research is to improve people’s chances of living healthier, active lives for longer and to reduce lifetime inequalities in these chances. 


Rachel leads two scientific work packages and a cross-cutting theme on research capacity development within the UKRI-NIHR funded ADMISSION research collaborative. The aim of this interdisciplinary work is to transform understanding of multiple long-term conditions (MLTC) in hospital patients. Using data from electronic health records Rachel is working in close collaboration with colleagues to take a systematic approach to characterising MLTC in hospitalised patients. This is complemented by analyses in population-based studies and qualitative research which is exploring inequalities in MLTC across life.


In her current research Rachel draws on 15 years' of experience applying a life course epidemiological approach to the study of healthy ageing (specifically physical capability and musculoskeletal ageing) using data from large observational, population-based studies, including the British birth cohort studies. This work: demonstrated the value of physical capability across life for healthy ageing; investigated the potentially modifiable lifetime factors associated with musculoskeletal health outcomes including sarcopenia; explored the dynamic interplay between physical activity and musculoskeletal health. She continues to pursue research in these areas through her work with the AGE Research Group and the Ageing, Sarcopenia and Multimorbidity Theme within the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre


Rachel actively promotes interdisciplinary translational research through her roles as co-lead for Interdisciplinary Research in the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre and as co-lead of the UKRI (BBSRC-MRC) funded ART (Ageing Research Translation) of Healthy Ageing Network.

 

In addition to ADMISSION and the ART of Healthy Ageing network, Rachel is also co-investigator on an NIHR funded project, led by colleagues at UCL, on frailty in younger adults which aims to understand the trajectories of frailty across the life course.


Full publication listings: ORCID and Google Scholar and; Q&A with Rachel Cooper

Teaching

Rachel is committed to teaching and capacity building.  She strives to provide those she supervises with positive experiences and works hard to ensure fair treatment and opportunities for all.  She has been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2016 and enjoys all aspects of teaching in particular postgraduate supervision.  In 2018, Rachel was honoured to be nominated by her students for a UCL student choice award in the category of outstanding research supervision.

Alongside postgraduate supervision, Rachel has developed high quality study materials and delivered teaching on a number of taught courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels with a focus, wherever possible, on integrating the latest research.

Publications