Colin Echeverría Aitken

Colin Echeverría Aitken is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Vassar College, specializing in molecular mechanisms of translation initiation. His research focuses on the ribosome's role in protein synthesis and its regulation in health and disease contexts. He leads the Aitken Lab, investigating translation initiation using biochemical and next-generation sequencing approaches.

His work examines how molecular machinery reads genetic information to assemble functional proteins, with implications for viral infections, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. Research interests include ribosome assembly dynamics, mRNA recruitment mechanisms, and eukaryotic initiation factors.

Dr. Aitken's publications demonstrate expertise in reconstituting translation initiation pathways and analyzing ribosomal positioning. His NIH-funded research explores eIF3's role in mRNA recognition. He teaches courses including Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics of Translation.