• Primary Faculty Profiles
• Bankert, Richard, Ph.D., V.M.D., Professor
• Bianco, Piero, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Campagnari, Anthony, Ph.D., Professor
• Collins, Arlene, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Connell, Terry, Ph.D., Professor
• Egilmez, Nejat, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Hakansson, Anders, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
• Hay, John, Ph.D., Professor
• Jacobs, Amy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
• Melendy, Thomas, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Panepinto, John, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
• Read, Laurie, Ph.D., Professor
• Russell, Michael, Ph.D., Professor
• Ruyechan, William, Ph.D., Professor and Chairman
• Thacore, Harshad, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Williams, Noreen, Ph.D., Professor
• Adjunct Faculty Profiles
• Departmental Publications
• Career Opportunities
• The Witebsky Center
• Seminars

Faculty and Research

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Education:

1967, Ph.D., Virology and Immunology, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York
1964, M.A., Virology and Immunology, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York
1961, B.A. cum laude, Chemistry, D'Youville College, Buffalo, New York

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Research Interests:

The Collins Laboratory is conducting research on antiviral and immune mechanisms of virus control. The Coronaviridae are the main focus of our studies. These viruses are enveloped positive-strand RNA viruses that primarily infected the respiratory tract in humans causing upper and lower respiratory disease which is more severe in hospitalized infants and immunocompromised patients. Our interest is in coronavirus interaction with the host innate immune system, in inflammation and cytokine and chemokine production, and in interferon(IFN) and antiviral responses. We are currently examining the antiviral effect of interferon induced proteins on apoptosis in Human Coronavirus (HCoV) 229E-infected cells. Also we are using inhibitors such as TPCK (N-Tosyl-L-Phenylalanine Chloromethyl Ketone) to block the toll-like receptor-mediated activation of NF-κB pathway by SARS Coronavirus Spike protein. In the future we plan to obtain cells from doubly transgenic mice expressing hAPN, the receptor for HCoV-229E and deficient in Stat1 to examine IFN-regulated responses and priming for adaptive immune responses in monocyte/macrophage cells (PBMC).

 

Relevant references:

Susan F. Dosch, Supriya D. Mahajan and Arlene R. Collins, SARS coronavirus spike protein-induced innate immune response occurs via activation of the NF-κB pathway in human monocyte macrophages in vitro. doi:10.1016/j.virusres.2009.01.005 [Epub ahead of print]

Yeh, E. A., Collins A., Cohen M.E., Duffner, P.K. and H. Faden. Detection of Coronavirus in the Central Nervous System of a Child with Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis.Pediatrics 113:73-76, 2004.

Collins, A.R. In vitro detection of apoptosis in monocyte/macropohages
infected with human coronaviruses. Clin Diag.Lab.Immunol. 9:1392-1395, 2002

Collins AR, Grubb A. Cystatin D, a natural salivary cysteine protease inhibitor, inhibits coronavirus replication at its physiologic concentration. Oral Microbiol Immunol. 1998 13:59-61.