Kathleen Collins

Kathleen Collins is a Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds the Walter and Ruth Schubert Family Chair. She leads the BBS Division and the Collins Lab, which focuses on the biochemistry, biology, and biotechnology of eukaryotic retroelements and their reverse transcriptases. Her research explores non-LTR retrotransposons, RNA silencing, and the engineering of reverse transcriptases for gene therapy and RNA sequencing technologies, supported by an NIH Director's Pioneer Award.

Her research interests include understanding the biochemical principles of eukaryotic retroelements, developing novel genomic editing tools, and studying RNA-protein interactions in retrotransposition. Recent work highlights applications of retroelement proteins for safe transgene insertion into human genomes and advancements in ribosome profiling and nanopore-based biophysical analyses.

Scientific awards include the NIH Director's Pioneer Award. Her lab's contributions bridge fundamental retrotransposon biology with translational applications in biotechnology. Ongoing efforts aim to engineer site-specific genome editing methods and dissect mechanisms underlying retrotransposon-mediated genetic diversity.