Amelie Collins Named 2022 Gerstner Merit Awardee
Four physician-scientists were recently named 2022 Gerstner Scholars: Rebecca Muhle, MD, PhD; Jennifer Small-Saunders, MD, PhD; Neil Vasan, MD, PhD; and Peter Yim, MD.
The Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Scholars Program provides exceptional physician-scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) with vital funding. Each scholar receives a stipend of $75,000 per year for three years for salary or laboratory support. The support allows early-career scientists to conduct pioneering research and gather the pilot data necessary to apply for grants from the National Institutes of Health and other sources. The Gerstner Scholars Program, established in 2008 by Louis V. Gerstner Jr. and the Gerstner Family Foundation, helps make VP&S a major engine of medical innovation.
The program also awarded the Gerstner Merit Award to 2019 Scholar Amélie Collins, MD, PhD. The Gerstner Merit Award, created in 2014, provides an additional year of funding and recognizes an exceptional third-year Gerstner Scholar who conducts innovative research, has shown significant growth as an academic medicine investigator, and is ideally positioned to secure a significant principal investigator award.
Amélie Collins, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Through her research, Collins aims to develop new approaches for the treatment of preterm and term infants she sees in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Her interest in science was sparked by an immunology course at the University of Chicago, where she received her BS in biology. She earned her MD and PhD degrees at the New York University School of Medicine. Upon moving to Columbia University for her pediatric residency and neonatology-perinatology fellowship training, Collins developed an interest in the development of the hematopoietic system in the fetus. Collins’ work on the development of natural killer cells in the human fetus resulted in an insightful paper published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight.
Her goal is to gain in-depth expertise in hematopoietic stem cells and the biology of early multipotent progenitors to complement her immunology training and develop her independent research that integrates these two aspects.