Kathleen Loretta Collins, MD

Kathleen Collins, a physician scientist who has focused on HIV persistence as an independent investigator for over 20 years is the 2015 recipient of the Internal Medicine Collegiate Professorship in HIIV Research. Over the years, she and her laboratory made important contributions to understanding the role of HIV accessory proteins in immune evasion (Nature 1998, Immunity 2003, Nature Immunology 2011, PLoS Pathogens 2008, Cell Host and Microbe 2014, Plos Pathogens 2015). These contributions expanded to include important studies of HIV latency following a discovery that HIV preferentially achieves a latent infection in primitive hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) about a decade ago (Nature Medicine 2010, Cell Host and Microbe 2011, PLoS Pathogens 2017, Cell Reports 2018). These interests continue to drive her laboratory as she explores ways to counter the immunoevasive effects of accessory proteins and eradicate latent cellular reservoirs to provide better treatments for HIV infected people. In 2019, she was the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Basic Research. She is an elected member of ASCI, AAP, and the National Academy of Medicine. She currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of JCI Insight and as the Associate Director of the Cellular and Molecular Graduate Program. She is a permanent member of the NIH AIDS Research Review Committee and is a member of the NIH Office of AIDS Research Advisory Committee.

Infectious Diseases

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The basic mechanisms of the immune system and the evasion of the immune system by viruses.