Dan M. Cooper, MD, is the Interim Executive Director of the Institute for Precision Health at UC Irvine and the Associate Director of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS, the NIH Clinical Translational Science Award, CTSA). Dr. Cooper founded the Pediatric Exercise and Genomics Research Center (PERC) at UC Irvine in 2003. PERC is dedicated to uncovering biological mechanisms of exercise that can be used to improve the lifelong health of children with chronic disease and disability using exercise as medicine. Dr. Cooper was one of the principal investigators of Project HEALTHY, a pioneering national study involving over 3,000 middle school children that was designed to reduce obesity and type 2 diabetes through school-based nutrition and PE programs. The results of this project were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Cooper’s laboratory is currently funded through grants from the NIH, and his group was named the national pediatric center for a multicenter NIH Common Fund study to uncover the molecular mechanisms through which exercise influences health (MoTrPAC). Dr. Cooper served from 2019-2021 as the chair of BRAID (Biomedical Research Acceleration, Integration, and Development; a coalition of the 5 UC medical centers that have NIH Clinical Translational Science Awards), which is part of regional and national studies focused on the use of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 disease prophylaxis and possible treatment. Dr. Cooper is also part of a national group of pediatric researchers and clinical leaders focused on strategic planning in the event of possible urgent health care emergencies.