Matthew Cooper, PhD, is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Wugen. In just a few years—starting with an idea in 2018—he assembled a team, raised over $200 million in venture capital and scaled a breakthrough cancer treatment. Now Wugen’s groundbreaking T-cell manufacturing is in a pivotal clinical trial.
Matt came to St. Louis to do post-doctoral work at Washington University. He planned to stay just two years before returning to southwest England. Fourteen years later, he’s married, raising a young family, and reflecting on the pivotal moment that changed the course of his life and career.
“Dr. John F. DiPersio, the then chief of oncology, is one of the most compassionate doctors I’ve ever met. One day, he came into our lab meeting clearly upset. He had just seen a patient with a severe form of leukemia called T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). This patient had run out of treatment options, and the doctor was devastated. He sat down at the table, put his head in his hands, and said, ‘We’ve got to find a way to help patients like this.’”
The moment still resonates with Matt. And today, he is the scientist behind one of the most promising cellular therapies in the world—developed right here in St. Louis. He also has living proof that an idea seeded during his post-doctoral work is, in fact, saving lives.
When Dr. David Duggan, a hematologist from New York, was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of leukemia, he knew it could be fatal. Duggan discovered a clinical study at Siteman Cancer Center—partially funded by Wugen and based on Matt’s work. In early 2024, he received an infusion of the CAR T-cell therapy, which eventually eliminated his malignant T cells, effectively ridding him of leukemia.
Matt and Dr. Duggan met at a conference later that year. “He was so grateful,” Matt says. “It was very humbling to see how the work we do in the lab directly impacts people’s lives.
At the time, CAR T-cell therapy was gaining attention as a breakthrough cancer treatment. The idea behind CAR T therapy is to take a patient’s own T cells—specialized immune cells that fight infections—and reprogram them to find and destroy cancer cells. It’s a brilliant application of genetic engineering and had shown great success in some forms of leukemia.
“But there was a big challenge when it came to T-cell leukemia like T-ALL. Since the cancer itself is made up of T cells, trying to use other T cells to fight it is tricky. If you engineer a T cell to attack T cells, it can end up attacking itself—or just not work at all,” Matt explains.
Matt and his team have developed a treatment that uses healthy donor cells—rather than the patient’s own—to fight cancer. The innovation offers great promise in terms of access and affordability of this treatment.
At Wugen, Matt and his colleagues continue to refine and advance the donor-derived T-cell model to ensure it is scalable and affordable. “If we can pull this off, and I believe we will, it’s not just a win for patients—it’s a huge moment for St. Louis. It shines a light on the incredible biotech work happening here,” he says.
Matt credits Washington University, BioGenerator, and the broader startup community in St. Louis for helping turn his idea into reality.
“BioGenerator was our first home. The support we received there—from lab space to investors, mentors, and the broader community—was foundational. They helped us go from an idea to a real company,” he says.
“The beauty of that ecosystem is that it’s not just about funding. It’s the hallway conversations, the impromptu brainstorms with people working on entirely different projects. Those connections help refine an idea, solve unexpected problems, and build something better. There’s a spirit of collaboration here—even among companies that aren’t working on anything similar. That openness has been critical. Sure, you have to be thoughtful about what you share, but if you don’t open up a little—if you don’t make yourself vulnerable—you miss out on feedback that can truly help you grow.”
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