James Joseph Collins

Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts~Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Used engineering principles in molecular biology to model, design, and construct synthetic gene networks, contributing to the development of the field of synthetic biology. Created genetic toggle switches, RNA switches, genetic counters, tunable mammalian genetic switches, and bacteriophage and programmable cells-all with broad applications in biotechnology and biomedicine. Using systems biology approaches, discovered that all classes of bactericidal antibiotics induce a common oxidative-damage cellular-death pathway. Finding fundamentally changed scientists' understanding of how antibiotics act and paved the way for the development of novel antibacterial therapies. Discovered a radical-based molecular mechanism whereby sublethal levels of antibiotics can lead to multidrug resistance. Recently, discovered a population-based ~resistance mechanism that allows a small number of resistant mutants (at some cost to themselves) to provide protection to other more vulnerable cells in a bacterial population. Honors include a MacArthur Fellowship (2003).~