Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biological Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Education:

Ph.D., Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, California Institute of Technology, 2006
Honors B.Sc., Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Toronto, 2000

Career Highlights:
Prof. Cynthia Collins joined the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at Rensselaer in March 2008. Before joining Rensselaer Dr. Collins was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Calgary. 

She was the recipient of the Alberta Ingenuity Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 2006-2008.

Research Areas:
Prof. Cynthia Collins is establishing a research program focused on engineering/re-engineering bacterial communities for applied problems in environmental cleanup and resource exploitation. While most of the desired processes are carried out by naturally occurring communities, they usually occur at rates too slow for bioremediation problems such as toxic waste site cleanup or bioconversion of plant waste on an agricultural scale.  The research strategy is to develop a program that addresses the problem at three levels of synthetic biology: (1) the development of engineered microbial communities, (2) engineered genetic networks for controlling gene expression, and (3) directed evolution/protein engineering to optimize enzymatic processes.

The Collins group focuses on fundamental and applied aspects of multiscale synthetic networks (from gene to protein to organism to community).  This work is novel as it combines quantitative aspects of modeling genetic regulatory networks, metabolic and biochemical engineering, systems biology and cell-cell communication with the complexities of coexisting communities of bacteria. The applications range from engineering sensors and sensor-transducers, to bioprocessing and bioremediation, and even to the development of therapeutics that specifically target the balance between good and bad bacteria in the human body.

Selected Publications:
Balagaddé, F.K., Song, H., Ozaki, J., Collins, C.H., Barnet, M., Arnold, F.H., Quake, S.R., and You, L. (2008).  A synthetic Escherichia coli predator-prey ecosystem.  Mol Sys Biol 4, 187. 

Collins, C.H., Leadbetter, J.R., and Arnold, F.H. (2006).  Dual selection enhances the signaling specificity of a variant of the quorum-sensing transcriptional activator LuxR.  Nat. Biotechnol. 24, 708-712.

Basu, S., Gerchman, Y., Collins, C.H., Arnold, F.H. and Weiss, R. (2005).  A synthetic multicellular system for programmed pattern formation.  Nature 434, 1130-1134.

Collins, C.H., Arnold, F.H. and Leadbetter, J.R. (2005).  Directed evolution of Vibrio fischeri LuxR for increased sensitivity to a broad spectrum of acyl-homoserine lactones.  Mol. Microbiol. 55, 712-23.

Yokobayashi, Y., Collins, C.H., Leadbetter, J.R., Weiss, R. and Arnold, F.H. (2003). Evolutionary design of genetic circuits and cell-cell communications.  Advances in Complex Systems 6, 37-45.

Jaikaran, D.C., Collins, C.H., and MacMillan, A.M. (2002).  Adenosine to inosine editing by ADAR2 requires formation of a ternary complex on the GluR-B R/G site.  J. Biol. Chem. 277, 37624-37629. 

Contact Information:
(518) 276-4178
ccollins@rpi.edu
http://www.eng.rpi.edu/chme/faculty_details.cfm?facultyID=collic3&type=bio