Jonathan Cooper, Ph.D.

Christian | Husband | Father | Son | Brother | Friend | Also a scientist | Biology Department Chair | Assoc. Prof. of Biology at @DBUPatriots (views are my own)

[NCAA Division II @NCAADII]

FRANK FINISHES IT 🤯

Trevor Frank hits the game-winning shot with 0.2 remaining in the game to give @DBUAthletics the @LoneStarConf championship.

🎥via @DBUBasketball

#MakeItYours | #D2MBB

[Dallas Baptist University @DBUPatriots]

Yesterday, we had the honor of celebrating a major milestone for Dallas Baptist University and the Carter School of Business with a groundbreaking ceremony that marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter. This moment represents more than the start of construction—it reflects a vision for excellence, innovation, and faithful leadership in business for generations to come.

“God is up to something big at DBU and yesterday was another example of His continued blessing and provision. We could not be more thankful for the Carter Family and every person that has helped make this dream a reality,” shared Dr. Adam Wright.

We’re grateful for the students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, community partners, and friends who have helped make this day possible through their support, prayers, and commitment to DBU’s mission. As we break ground, we’re also laying a foundation for expanded opportunities: spaces that will foster collaboration, strengthen academic preparation, and equip future business leaders to serve with integrity and purpose. We look forward to watching this vision rise from the ground up—and to the impact it will have as the Carter School of Business continues to shape leaders who influence the marketplace who stand firm and stand out.

[David Sentendrey @DavidSFOX4]

VIDEO: DBU student's quick thinking helps stranger in Oak Lawn
...

DALLAS - A Dallas Baptist University student's quick thinking may have saved a man's life in Oak Lawn Tuesday night.

Emma Dilley tells FOX 4's David Sentendrey she and her friends were driving through Oak Lawn in Dallas Tuesday night when they saw a man lying on the street with a crowd of people around him. The man was lying near the intersection of Lemmon Avenue and Douglas Avenue.

She pulled over and saw the man was unconscious and not breathing. "I got on the scene and I checked his pulse, and it was very faint. I actually thought he was dead when I got there, but I re-did the pulse, and it was just a very faint pulse," Dilley said.

"A bystander told me that he had been flagged down by this man saying he was having an asthma attack and just collapsed on the ground — and he had his inhaler next to him, so I figured that was the most logical explanation," she explained.

Dilley said she's known CPR since she was a high school freshman. Now a freshman at Dallas Baptist University, she said that training was quite useful on Tuesday night.

"I figured I needed to put others before myself, and so I just hopped out and did CPR," she told Sentendrey.

Cell phone video shows Dilley taking action moments after she hopped out of her car. She performed CPR on the man despite never having performed it on a human before.

"I want to go into healthcare, so I figured I’d use it at some point, but definitely didn’t think I’d use it in college," Dilley said. She's a pre-med biology major at DBU who hopes to be a doctor in the NICU one day.

The man revived during Dilley's second round of chest compressions. First responders arrived within minutes of Dilley performing CPR and took over medical care.

Does Dilley think she saved his life? "I think I did. I tried my best," she told Sentendrey. "But I’m just glad I was there to help and be there for him."

Dallas Fire & Rescue did not have an update on the man this evening. He was taken to a local hospital after the incident.

[Jonathan Cooper, Ph.D. @JMarkedCooper]

Praying the man is alright. Proud of Emma and thankful to the Lord for bringing students like her to our program. Luke 10:33-37 #SDG @DBUPatriots

[Jonathan Cooper, Ph.D. @JMarkedCooper]

Praying the man is alright. Proud of Emma and thankful to the Lord for bringing students like her to our program. Luke 10:33-37 #SDG @DBUPatriots

[David Sentendrey @DavidSFOX4]

VIDEO: DBU student's quick thinking helps stranger in Oak Lawn
...

DALLAS - A Dallas Baptist University student's quick thinking may have saved a man's life in Oak Lawn Tuesday night.

Emma Dilley tells FOX 4's David Sentendrey she and her friends were driving through Oak Lawn in Dallas Tuesday night when they saw a man lying on the street with a crowd of people around him. The man was lying near the intersection of Lemmon Avenue and Douglas Avenue.

She pulled over and saw the man was unconscious and not breathing. "I got on the scene and I checked his pulse, and it was very faint. I actually thought he was dead when I got there, but I re-did the pulse, and it was just a very faint pulse," Dilley said.

"A bystander told me that he had been flagged down by this man saying he was having an asthma attack and just collapsed on the ground — and he had his inhaler next to him, so I figured that was the most logical explanation," she explained.

Dilley said she's known CPR since she was a high school freshman. Now a freshman at Dallas Baptist University, she said that training was quite useful on Tuesday night.

"I figured I needed to put others before myself, and so I just hopped out and did CPR," she told Sentendrey.

Cell phone video shows Dilley taking action moments after she hopped out of her car. She performed CPR on the man despite never having performed it on a human before.

"I want to go into healthcare, so I figured I’d use it at some point, but definitely didn’t think I’d use it in college," Dilley said. She's a pre-med biology major at DBU who hopes to be a doctor in the NICU one day.

The man revived during Dilley's second round of chest compressions. First responders arrived within minutes of Dilley performing CPR and took over medical care.

Does Dilley think she saved his life? "I think I did. I tried my best," she told Sentendrey. "But I’m just glad I was there to help and be there for him."

Dallas Fire & Rescue did not have an update on the man this evening. He was taken to a local hospital after the incident.

[Jonathan Cooper, Ph.D. @JMarkedCooper]

Praying the man is alright. Incredibly proud of Emma for stepping in to help…such a great example of a heart for service. #SDG
@DBUPatriots

[FOX 4 NEWS @FOX4]

A Dallas Baptist University student's quick thinking may have saved the life of an unconscious man in Oak Lawn on Tuesday. https://t.co/5USJ1Rcxjr

[FOX 4 NEWS @FOX4]

A Dallas Baptist University student's quick thinking may have saved the life of an unconscious man in Oak Lawn on Tuesday. https://t.co/5USJ1Rcxjr

[Texas Rangers @Rangers]

Our turn. #AllForTX

[Esra Akbay @EsraAkbay_]

The day is finally here. We present a comprehensive characterization of KRAS G12C and G12D driven lung cancers. https://t.co/ITT47FRbIH

[Texas Rangers @Rangers]

REPOST for a chance to win the first MacKenzie Gore Rangers jersey 👀

[Jonathan Cooper, Ph.D. @JMarkedCooper]

@Digitalliturgy This would be amazing if it translates to similar effects in humans. Alas, therapies that work in animal models often don’t show the same efficacy in humans. Keep an eye out for future human clinical trial data on this/other new therapies. Success there (DV) will* make headlines!

[City of Fort Worth @CityofFortWorth]

City Hall will be closed tomorrow due to winter weather and reopen at 10 a.m. Tuesday. City Council meets at noon, followed by exec session, regular meeting at 2 p.m., and Housing Finance Corp. Learn more: https://t.co/TY8KGVHJ26

[City of Fort Worth @CityofFortWorth]

Attention Fort Worth residents: No residential garbage, recycling, yard waste, or bulk collections tomorrow or Tuesday. Regular pickup resumes Wednesday. Extra bags for Mon/Tue routes can be set out Feb. 2-3. Details: https://t.co/KDqTVlXlbG

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[Sean McDowell @Sean_McDowell]

AI and a Possible Renaissance for Christian Higher Education | LOVE this! https://t.co/nnSj5S2deo

[DBU Carter School of Business @dbucarterschool]

DBU is honored to announce a transformational $2.4 million gift from Jay and Jenny Allison of Frisco, Texas, to the Don and Linda Carter School of Business. This remarkable investment in DBU’s STAND FIRM. STAND OUT. To read more, visit https://t.co/CCUeD3tlAU

[UTSW Simmons Cancer Center @utswcancer]

UT Southwestern's Liver Tumor Program has been named an NCI Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) and awarded a $12 million grant to accelerate discoveries in liver cancer treatment and prevention.
https://t.co/fbvU1uQ83e

[The White House @WhiteHouse]

On the 24th anniversary of 9/11, we honor the lives lost, the heroes who emerged, and the resilience of the American spirit.

America will never forget.

[DBU Athletics @DBUAthletics]

Today we remember the fallen. 🇺🇲

#NeverForget

[UT Southwestern Medical Center @UTSWMedCenter]

Steven McKnight, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry at #UTSW, is the 2025 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (@LaskerFDN) recipient for pioneering work on low-sequence complexity proteins and their impact on cellular organization and disease. https://t.co/47XmWvmEjx