San Francisco, CA – October 9, 2024 – The UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery is pleased to announce that Kelsey H. Collins, PhD, has been honored for her exceptional contributions to the fields of osteoarthritis research and regenerative medicine. Over the past year, Dr. Collins has received several prestigious recognitions that highlight her significant impact on advancing scientific knowledge and enhancing patient care.
$1.5M funding for osteoarthritis, regenerative medicine research
Among her recent accomplishments, Dr. Collins has been awarded the NIH Director’s New Innovator DP2 Award, providing over $1.5 million in funding to support researchers engaged in high-risk, high-reward studies. This funding will support her groundbreaking work in regenerative therapies aimed at addressing musculoskeletal pain, a significant contributor to the opioid crisis.
Understanding Osteoarthritis: Safranin O/Fast Green staining reveals proteoglycan content in mouse knee joints, crucial for understanding how ketogenic diets may alleviate knee pain in osteoarthritis patients. The red staining indicates healthy cartilage, vital for joint function. The lab uses these techniques to determine the mechanisms of diet on osteoarthritis, aiming to provide new pathways for pain relief. (Reyna Villa/Kelsey Collins/UCSF Laboratory for Musculoskeletal Crosstalk).
“Our research indicates that body fat contributes to systemic inflammation, which plays a significant role in cartilage loss and pain in osteoarthritis,” Dr. Collins said. “We believe that understanding the complex interactions between factors secreted by fat and musculoskeletal tissues is critical for developing innovative osteoarthritis therapeutics aimed at improving overall health. The exciting part about this work is that fat likely plays a role in many pathologies associated with obesity and aging, so we can use the tools we are building to understand interorgan crosstalk relationships that are broadly applicable to aging and obesity.”
Lab Committed to Inclusion, Innovation: Pictured from the living roof of the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building (RMB) is the UCSF Laboratory for Musculoskeletal Crosstalk, dedicated to improving patient outcomes through collaborative and innovative musculoskeletal research while fostering an inclusive lab culture that supports diversity and equity in orthopaedic research. (Courtesy Photo/Joel Roberts)
Academic recognition from OARSI, Grainger Foundation
Additionally, Dr. Collins was recognized as a 2024 Rising Star in Basic Science by the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI), an honor presented at the recent OARSI meeting in Vienna, Austria. This recognition is underscored by her three impactful papers, which have significantly contributed to the field, and is typically awarded to mid-career researchers. For a deeper dive into her research contributions, readers can access her papers here: Adipose tissue is a critical regulator of osteoarthritis (PNAS), A genome-engineered bioartificial implant for autoregulated anticytokine drug delivery (Science Advances), and Leptin mediates the regulation of muscle mass and strength by adipose tissue (Journal of Physiology).
Dr. Collins was also invited to participate in the highly selective Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Education Meeting, co-sponsored by the National Academy of Engineering, which took place from September 11 to 14, 2024, at the Beckham Center in Irvine, California. This prestigious event honors trailblazers across diverse fields—not solely scientists—inviting them to showcase groundbreaking research and educational advancements.
“We are immensely proud of her achievements and the promise she holds for the future of orthopaedic research,” Dr. C. Benjamin Ma, chair of the UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, said. “Dr. Collins embodies the PRIDE values of UCSF—Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity, and Excellence. As a champion of these principles, she not only drives innovation in her own research but also actively recruits and mentors researchers in her lab, fostering a collaborative environment that yields remarkable results that could shift paradigms in the treatment of osteoarthritis, obesity and aging.”
About Kelsey Collins, Ph.D.
Kelsey H. Collins, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator at the UCSF Laboratory for Musculoskeletal Crosstalk, where she leads basic and translational research focused on the molecular mechanisms driving tissue interactions in osteoarthritis and related conditions. Learn more.