Professor Dr. Bradley Collins

Biography

Dr. Bradley Henry Collins is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at Duke University, specializing in Abdominal Transplant Surgery. His research primarily focuses on the feasibility of transplanting porcine islets in non-human primates as a treatment for type 1 diabetes mellitus, addressing the critical shortage of human cadaveric pancreas donors. In the United States, there are approximately 1.2 million individuals suffering from type 1 diabetes, with a significant shortage of pancreases for transplantation. To tackle this issue, Dr. Collins, in collaboration with Dr. Emmanuel Opara, has developed techniques to purify islets from porcine pancreases, encapsulating them in microcapsules for transplantation in diabetic baboons using immunosuppression to demonstrate the utility of this method in a pre-clinical model. Additionally, Dr. Collins has an interest in studying liver senescence, working alongside hepatologist Dr. Don Rockey to induce cirrhosis in young and old mice using carbon tetrachloride. His lab utilizes FACS technology to identify lymphocyte populations and explore cytokine profiles, planning to employ gene chip technology to assess gene expression related to these conditions.

Research Interests

Experience