Kelsey Collins, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Anatomy
University of California, San Francisco
Seminar Information
Adipose tissue dysfunction is now appreciated to drive disease that occurs with aging and obesity. Our goal is to determine how adipose tissue communicates with other organ systems to potentiate functional decline and chronic inflammation. Our lab uses preclinical, in vitro, and human cell models of osteoarthritis as a paradigm to decode systemic factors and signals from fat that drive age and obesity-related musculoskeletal disease and pain. We also seek to understand how signals from the joint can, in turn, drive organismal aging and systemic metabolic dysfunction using novel multi-omics and spatial-omics strategies. We will discuss how we are leveraging these insights toward the development of novel therapeutic strategies, like engineered cell therapies.
Dr. Kelsey Collins is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Anatomy at University of California San Francisco, USA. Her lab is focused on defining novel mechanisms of fat interorgan crosstalk using osteoarthritis, lipedema, obesity, aging and knee pain as model systems in mice, cell models, and human tissues. Most recently they have demonstrated a causative mechanistic role for fat secreted factors in the onset and progression of knee pain. Dr. Collins and her team leveraging state-of-the-art interdisciplinary approaches in bioengineering, endocrinology, stem cell biology, and physiology to understand healthy aging and reimagine treatment options for musculoskeletal pain.