James J. Collins

About

Jim Collins is the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science and Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT. He is a member of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology Faculty, a Core Founding Faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is recognized as one of the founders of the field of synthetic biology, with his research group focusing on using synthetic biology to create next-generation diagnostics and therapeutics. His work employs engineering principles to model, design, and build synthetic gene circuits and programmable cells, aiming to develop novel classes of diagnostics and therapeutics. Professor Collins' patented technologies have been licensed by over 25 biotech, pharma, and medical device companies, and he has co-founded several companies including Synlogic, Senti Biosciences, Sherlock Biosciences, and Cellarity, as well as Phare Bio, a non-profit dedicated to AI-driven antibiotic discovery. His research group also works in synthetic biology and systems biology, with a particular focus on network biology approaches to study antibiotic action, bacterial defense mechanisms, and the emergence of resistance. Collins has received numerous awards, including a MacArthur “Genius” Award and the Dickson Prize in Medicine, and he is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the…

Research topics

• Biology
• Computational biology
• Biochemistry
• Medicine
• Pathology
• Virology
• Cell biology
• Genetics
• Microbiology
• Immunology

Selected publications

• A Deep Learning Approach to Antibiotic Discovery

  Cell · 2020 · 2127 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Cell-free biosensors for rapid detection of water contaminants

  Nature Biotechnology · 2020 · 390 citations

  DOI

• A lab-on-a-chip for the concurrent electrochemical detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA and anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in saliva and plasma

  Nature Biomedical Engineering · 2022 · 267 citations

  DOI

• Ultrasensitive CRISPR-based diagnostic for field-applicable detection of <i>Plasmodium</i> species in symptomatic and asymptomatic malaria

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 241 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  infections.

  DOI

• Machine learning for antimicrobial peptide identification and design

  Nature Reviews Bioengineering · 2024-02-26 · 202 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R24DK092760

  NIH · $10.7M · 2020

• NIH Grant R01HD037880

  NIH · $2.0M · 2008

• NIH Grant R21DC003484

  NIH · $85k · 1999

Frequent coauthors

• George Q. Daley

  Harvard University

  208 shared

• Michael A. Lobritz

  Roche (Switzerland)

  129 shared

• Yuin‐Han Loh

  Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology

  125 shared

• Lewis A. Lipsitz

  Hebrew College

  121 shared

• Hu Li

  95 shared

• D. Casey Kerrigan

  OESH Shoes (United States)

  82 shared

• Chadi El Farran

  Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

  78 shared

• George M. Church

  Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology

  75 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Biochemistry

  University of California, San Francisco

  1986

• B.S., Chemistry

  University of California, Berkeley

  1981

Awards & honors

• MacArthur "Genius" Award
• Dickson Prize in Medicine
• Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Elected member of the National Academy of Engineering
• Elected member of the National Academy of Medicine

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