The Collins lab opened in April of 2022 in the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, The Friedman Center for Nutrition and Inflammation, and the Drukier Institute for Children’s Health. We aim to understand how nutrition can optimize the immune system by regulating cellular metabolism, host physiology, and the gut microbiota.
Principal Investigator
Nicholas Collins, Ph.D.
Nick completed his Bachelor of Science with majors in Immunology and Pathology at The University of Melbourne. He then completed an honors year in the laboratory of Dr. Dale Godfrey (The University of Melbourne) studying NKT cell development, and a PhD in the laboratories of Dr. Frank Carbone and Dr. Thomas Gebhardt (The University of Melbourne) investigating circulating and tissue-resident memory T cell responses in skin. After graduating, Nick joined the laboratory of Dr. Yasmine Belkaid at the National Institutes of Health for his postdoctoral fellowship. There, he studied the impact of nutrition on immune responses. The main focus was to develop a mechanistic understanding of how the host adapts to dietary restriction to support and optimize immunological memory, a line of research he is extending in his independent laboratory at Weill Cornell Medical College. Ultimately, Nick aims to harness the impact of nutrition on the immune system in the design of novel vaccination strategies and cancer immunotherapies. Further, he aims to use this information to design rational nutritional intervention strategies that optimize immunity to prevent and treat disease.
Lab Members
Seong-Ji Han, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Research Associate
Seong-Ji Han obtained her bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in biochemistry at the Free University of Berlin in Germany. She did her Ph.D. research at the University of California, Berkeley, in the laboratory of Dr. Ellen Robey, which investigated the immune response to Toxoplasma gondii. She did her postdoctoral work with Dr. Yasmine Belkaid at the NIH that demonstrated the importance of adipose tissue memory T cells in regulating adipocyte function and promoting host protection against infection. Her current research focuses on understanding the impact of nutrition on the immune system.
Mingeum Jeong, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Mingeum obtained her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Food and Nutritional Sciences at Korea University in Seoul, Korea, where she studied the beneficial effect of nutraceuticals on biological processes in Prof. Hyung-Joo Suh's laboratory. Then, she completed Dr. sc. hum (Ph.D) in the laboratory of Prof. Adelheid Cerwenka at Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg in Germany, investigating the impact of vitamin A metabolites on group 1 innate lymphoid cells. After graduation, she joined the Collins lab in February 2023. Mingeum's research focuses on understanding how nutrition regulates immune responses against melanoma.
Luisa Menezes Silva, M.Sc.
Visiting Graduate Student
Luisa is from Minas Gerais, Brazil. She obtained her BS in Biomedical Sciences from the Federal University of Triangulo Mineiro in 2018. She completed her MS in Immunology in 2020 at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in Prof. Denise Fonseca's lab, where she studied the effects of cholinergic signaling for adipose tissue inflammation during obesity. She started her PhD in 2021 at Prof. Niels Olsen's lab, at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 2023, Luisa joined the Collins Lab in October 2023 for her abroad PhD internship. Her thesis project examines how dietary restriction can impact immune cells at homeostasis and during infections.
Charles Carr B.S.
Graduate Student
Charlie is from London, Canada. He completed undergraduate studies in microbiology and immunology at the University of Toronto. He worked in the laboratories of Dr. Jeremy Burton and Dr. Dana Philpott, most recently researching how innate immune sensing of microbial products contributes to inflammatory bowel disease. Charlie entered the Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis program at Weill Cornell in August 2023 and joined the Collins lab in June 2024. He is interested in understanding how the microbiome shapes immune responses in settings of health, inflammatory disease, and cancer.
Alumni
Jessica Williamson, M.S.
Research Technician in the Collins lab from August 2022- August 2023. She is currently a medical student at New York Medical College.
