Richard Anthony Collins FRSC (born 18 February 1966) is a British scientist.

Life

He obtained his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Biochemistry on 'Purification and characterisation of a mutant form of pyruvate kinase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae produced by site-directed mutatgenesis' from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

in 1994. He did post-doctoral research on natural products with anti-viral properties in the USA and

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, and has published peer reviewed scientific articles on

HIV-1 The subtypes of HIV include two main subtypes, known as HIV type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV type 2 (HIV-2). These subtypes have distinct genetic differences and are associated with different epidemiological patterns and clinical characteristics. HIV-1 e ...

inhibition, novel nucleic acid based diagnostics for

avian influenza Avian influenza, also known as avian flu or bird flu, is a disease caused by the influenza A virus, which primarily affects birds but can sometimes affect mammals including humans. Wild aquatic birds are the primary host of the influenza A viru ...

severe acute respiratory syndrome Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the virus SARS-CoV-1, the first identified strain of the SARS-related coronavirus. The first known cases occurred in November 2002, and the sy ...

(SARS), and

foot-and-mouth disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious disease, infectious and sometimes fatal virus (biology), viral disease that primarily affects even-toed ungulates, including domestic and wild Bovidae, bovids. The vir ...

Scientific career

Collins identified potential anti-HIV-1 activity in a number of partially purified plant extracts, especially

Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemums ( ), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants in the Asteraceae family. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia, and the center of diversity is in China. Co ...

morifolium,

Salvia miltiorrhiza ''Salvia miltiorrhiza'' (), also known as red sage, redroot sage, Chinese sage, or danshen, is a perennial plant in the genus ''Salvia'', highly valued for its roots in traditional Chinese medicine. Native to China and Japan, it grows at elevat ...

Prunella vulgaris ''Prunella vulgaris'', the common self-heal, heal-all, woundwort, heart-of-the-earth, carpenter's herb, brownwort or blue curls, is a herbaceous plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. Description ''Prunella vulgaris'' grows high, with creeping, s ...

and commercially available supplements, i.e. polysaccharopeptide (PSP) from

Trametes versicolor ''Trametes versicolor''also known as ''Coriolus versicolor'' and ''Polyporus versicolor''is a common polypore mushroom found throughout the world. Owing to its shape being similar to that of a wild turkey's tail feathers, ''T. versicolor ...

. He represented a biotechnology company in discussing the scientific validity of the method proposed by the Government in the Bills Committee stage of the proposed legislation and the media. As a result of the growing interest in genetic parentage testing (

DNA profiling DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting and genetic fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is cal ...

) in Hong Kong, Collins, working with others, found that the number of men in Hong Kong who were not the biological fathers of their children might be much higher than expected. Collins also helped develop a number of rapid diagnostic tests based on nucleic acid analysis, notably the nucleic acid sequence-based amplification ( NASBA) technique. Many of these were developed in response to high-profile disease outbreaks in Hong Kong and around the world, e.g.

H5N1, H7,

(SARS). Collins has given numerous presentations and interviews to scientists and the media to support the development of the new tests. Currently, Collins is scientific review director in the Research Office of the Food and Health Bureau, Hong Kong SAR Government, where he is involved in managing public funds related to health services and infectious disease research. His recent interest is in assessing the payback from research supported by public funds. Collins is also the author of "Under A Blood Red Sky" (), a

techno-thriller A techno-thriller or technothriller is a hybrid genre drawing from science fiction, thrillers, spy fiction, action, and war novels. They include a disproportionate amount (relative to other genres) of technical details on their subject matter ...

which received favourable reviews when it was published in November 2004.David Watkins.Reasons to be fearful.South China Morning Post. 22 Feb 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Richard A 1966 births Living people Alumni of the University of Dundee Alumni of the University of Edinburgh British biochemists Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry