Amélie Collins Named a 2019 Gerstner Scholar
Four physician-scientists at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons have been named 2019 Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Scholars, and a fifth physician-scientist has been named a 2019 Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Merit Awardee.
The Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Scholars Program annually supports tenure-track physicians who conduct research that has the promise to bring new treatments to patients. The fund provides a stipend of $75,000 per year, for up to three years, to support the awardees’ research projects. Scholars are nominated by a committee of distinguished research faculty and selected by the VP&S dean. The program has named scholars every year since 2008.
The program also presents the Gerstner Merit Award to an outstanding third-year Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Scholar who has made great strides in research. Created in 2014, the award provides an additional year of support to help the scholar secure a significant principal investigator award and become an independent investigator.
The Gerstner Family Foundation has provided funds for the program.
Upon moving to Columbia University for her pediatric residency and neonatology-perinatology fellowship training, Amélie Collins, assistant professor of pediatrics, developed an interest in the development of the hematopoietic system in the fetus. Her 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.
Collins’ goal is to gain in-depth expertise in hematopoietic stem cells and the biology of early multipotent progenitor cells to complement her training in the immunology field and to develop new approaches for the treatment of preterm and term infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. Her interest in understanding how fetal hematopoiesis contributes to fetal/neonatal susceptibility to infection has led her to study the cells at the top of the hierarchy of the hematopoietic system.
Collins’ interest in science was sparked by an immunology course at the University of Chicago, where she received her undergraduate degree in biology with honors. She earned her MD and PhD at New York University School of Medicine.