Kathleen Collins is an American RNA biologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Her research considers telomerase RNA structure and telomere function, and eukaryotic transposable elements.
[3] Telomerase is a reverse transcriptase that protects chromosomes by replacing the telomere, a short section of DNA lost from the ends of chromosomes during DNA replication.
[4] In 2018 Collins reported the most detailed image of the three-dimensional molecular structure of telomerase, which offered hope for the design of drugs that can prevent cancer and ageing.
The Collins approach samples small sections of DNA or RNA found in the blood, which can provide information about the presence of a tumour.