James (Jim) Collins is the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science and Professor of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as a member of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology Faculty.

He is a core founding faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Being one of the founders of the field of synthetic biology, his research group currently focuses on using synthetic biology to create next-generation diagnostics and therapeutics. Jim has patented technologies that have been licensed by over 25 biotechnological, pharmaceutical and medical devices companies. He has also helped to launch several companies, including Synlogic and Sherlock Biosciences.

Jim has received numerous awards and honours, including a Rhodes Scholarship and a MacArthur “Genius” Award, and he is an elected member of all three national academies of the USA; the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine.