James J. Collins is one of the pioneers of the fields of synthetic and network biology. He is Termeer Professor of Bioengineering at MIT and is also affiliated with the Broad Institute and the Wyss Institute. His research group works in synthetic biology and systems biology. He has developed several cutting-edge computational tools for network biology with therapeutic applications and has been working on machine learning tools for biology since nearly two decades ago. Some of his notable software is being applied in Engine Bio’s Network Biomedicine platforms.
Professor Collins’ patented technologies have been licensed by over 25 biotech, pharma and medical devices companies, and he has helped to launched a number of companies, including Sample6, Synlogic and EnBiotix. He has received numerous awards and honors, including a Rhodes Scholarship, a MacArthur “Genius” Award, an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, a Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Award, as well as several teaching awards. Professor Collins is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and a charter fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He received his doctorate from Oxford University.