Jimi Cook
As the founder and director of the MU Comparative Orthopaedics Laboratory, Jimi Cook leads a team of researchers and clinicians from schools and departments across campus that compares human and animal joints. Together, they work to develop new treatments for arthritis for both man and his best friend.
Cook, a doctor of veterinary medicine who grew up seeing his grandfather suffer from a crippling form of the disease, holds an endowed professorship in orthopaedic surgery made possible by a gift from William C. and Kathryn E. Allen.
In addition to a salary supplement, the professorship provides funds for research and staff support that keep his interdisciplinary team running like a well-oiled machine. “The Allen endowment is very meaningful to me,” says Cook. “Without it, I would not be here at the University of Missouri.”
Cook’s Lab is currently producing some phenomenal research — including the development of a biological “living knee” that would make plastic and metal knee replacements a thing of the past.
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