Jessica Cooperstone, PhD

Research Focus

Intersection of plant science and human nutrition to understand the chemical basis of health benefits derived from fruit and vegetables.  Biochemist with specialization in both targeted and untargeted mass spectrometry based metabolomics, focusing on phytochemicals and their metabolites in plants, foods, and mammalian systems. 

Research Key Words

Phytochemicals, mass spectrometry based metabolomics, multi-omics data integration, fruits and vegetables, clinical trials, biomarkers of food intake, plant science, crop improvement

Jessica Cooperstone, PhD (she/her) got her BS in Food Science from Cornell University and her PhD at The Ohio State University in Food Science and Technology, where she also was a Postdoctoral Researcher and Research Scientist.  Through an interdisciplinary approach, she is interested in elucidating bioactive compounds from plants and understanding this bioactivity in vivo using pre-clinical and human models.  She employs targeted and untargeted metabolomics techniques on plants, foods and biological samples.  Better understanding what and how compounds from plants can affect health will allow breeding and management of crops to optimize levels of these bioactives to improve health outcomes.  Her group has active projects in tomatoes, soy, apples, black raspberries and strawberries.  Dr. Cooperstone has a split appointment in Horticulture and Crop Science as well as Food Science and Technology, and can advise graduate students in both departments.