Kathleen Collins (scientist)

Kathleen L. Collins
Born	(1963-05-10) May 10, 1963 Norwell, Massachusetts
Alma mater	Wellesley College Massachusetts Institute of Technology Johns Hopkins University
Scientific career
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Thesis	The role of DNA polymerase alpha B subunit in SV40 DNA replication (1993)
Doctoral advisor	Thomas J. Kelly

For other people named Kathleen Collins, see Kathleen Collins (disambiguation).

Kathleen L. Collins (born May 10, 1963) is an American biophysicist and Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research considers telomerase RNA structure and telomere function.

Early life and education

Collins grew up in Norwell, Massachusetts. She became interested in chemistry as a young child, and eventually studied chemistry at Wellesley College. Here she worked in the laboratory of Andrew C. Webb'. Collins completed an undergraduate research placement at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she worked on cloning interleukin-1. For her graduate studies Collins joined Johns Hopkins University. Here she earned an MD–PhD in DNA synthesis with Thomas J. Kelly. For her postdoctoral studies Collins returned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she joined the laboratory of David Baltimore.

Research and career

Collins was appointed to the faculty at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 1992. Her research has considered the structure and function of the enzyme telomerase. Telomerase is a reverse transcriptase that protects chromosomes by replacing the telomere, a short section of DNA lost from the ends of chromosomes during DNA replication. It was first detected in the late 1970s by Elizabeth Blackburn.The telomere prevents the chromosomes from fusing. Most cells turn off telomerase, restricting their proliferation, whilst cancer cells activate telomerase and encourage cell division.

Collins developed a scalpel-free approach to tumour biopsies. Cancer cells shed DNA into blood, DNA that can reveal mutations within the tumours that might make them resistant to treatment. The Collins approach samples small sections of DNA or RNA found in the blood, which can provide information about the presence of a tumour. This type of sampling can also tell whether or not a cancer has metastasised or whether it will respond to certain therapies. In 2017 she decided to spin this technology out into a company; KarnaTeq.

Select publications

• Collins, Kathleen L.; Chen, Benjamin K.; Kalams, Spyros A.; Walker, Bruce D.; Baltimore, David (1998). "HIV-1 Nef protein protects infected primary cells against killing by cytotoxic T lymphocytes". Nature. 391 (6665): 397–401. doi:10.1038/34929. ISSN 1476-4687.

• Carter, Christoph C.; Onafuwa-Nuga, Adewunmi; McNamara, Lucy A.; Riddell, James; Bixby, Dale; Savona, Michael R.; Collins, Kathleen L. (2010). "HIV-1 infects multipotent progenitor cells causing cell death and establishing latent cellular reservoirs". Nature Medicine. 16 (4): 446–451. doi:10.1038/nm.2109. ISSN 1546-170X.

• Roeth, Jeremiah F.; Collins, Kathleen L. (June 1, 2006). "Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Nef: Adapting to Intracellular Trafficking Pathways". Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. 70 (2): 548–563. doi:10.1128/MMBR.00042-05. ISSN 1092-2172. PMID 16760313.