Sara Collins

Sara Collins has a strong background in computational and molecular biology, bioinformatics, and bioinformatics instruction. Sara currently holds the position of Senior Scientist II, Computational and Molecular Biology at Alltrna since June 2023. Prior to this, they worked at Indigo from September 2018 to March 2023, where they served as a Senior Bioinformatics Scientist and later as a Bioinformatics Scientist. At Indigo, Sara was involved in various aspects of the discovery pipeline, including developing backend systems, conducting mode of action analyses, prototyping and scaling algorithms, and building server-based online tools. Sara collaborated with stakeholders across the company and contributed to driving value for the company.

Before their tenure at Indigo, Sara worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from November 2014 to May 2017. As a Bioinformatics Specialist, they played a key role in designing and building IMG/ProPortal, an online resource for genomic data analysis of the ocean cyanobacteria Prochlorococcus. Sara also worked extensively with the bioinformatics workflow system Galaxy and incorporated custom algorithms into the website.

Sara's career in the field of bioinformatics began at Boston University, where they served as an Instructor for the course "Applications in Bioinformatics" from January 2014 to May 2014. Sara taught essential concepts in bioinformatics and provided hands-on programming experience using Python. Additionally, they were a Ph.D. Candidate from June 2008 to May 2014, conducting research on the metabolic capabilities of Shewanella oneidensis and studying functional robustness in microbial ecology. Their work involved Flux Balance Analysis techniques, utilization of online databases such as KEGG and MetaCyc, and algorithm design for bioinformatic analyses of large datasets.

Sara Collins pursued their education with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Computer Science from the University of Vermont, attending from 2003 to 2007. Afterward, they enrolled at Boston University from 2007 to 2014, where they completed their Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Bioinformatics.