Biography
LTC Natalie D. Collins received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Southern University and A & M College in 2004 and holds a Master’s in public health from Kaplan University (2013) and PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Texas Medical Branch (2017).
Upon graduating from Southern University and A & M College, LTC Collins was commissioned as a Healthcare Administrator (70B) and relocated to Fort Benning, GA to begin her Army career with 690th Medical Company (Ground Evacuation) as a Platoon Leader in 2004. There she deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2005 to 2006, providing medical support for logistical convoys. After returning from her deployment LTC Collins served as the Assistant Operations Officer for the 14th Combat Support Hospital before being selected to attend the Clinical Laboratory Officer Course in 2007 to earn her certification as a Medical Laboratory Scientist (MLS) in 2008. LTC Collins’ follow on assignments as a MLS included overseeing Ancillary Services (2008 to 2009) and Anatomic Pathology at Brooke Army Medical Center (2009 to 2011). In 2011, LTC Collins was selected to serve as the Company Commander for the US Army Institute of Surgical Research where she served for 2 years, until her selection to advance her degree and earn her PhD. During her graduate education LTC Collins carried out research to elucidate the mechanism of attenuation of the yellow fever vaccine 17D and investigate the genetic diversity of Zika virus and Zika virus vaccine stability. LTC Collins served as the Chief of Diagnostics and Clinical Readouts and manages the Adenovirus portfolio of the Viral Diseases Branch at WRAIR from 2017 to 2020. Her primary research focus was evaluating vaccine efficiency and protection for multiple vaccine candidates and conducting sero-prevalence studies to inform force health protection. She is now serving as the Director, Viral Diseases Program at WRAIR.
LTC Collins’ military awards include Army Achievement Medal, Army Commendation Medal (3), Meritorious Service Medal (3), Joint Service Commendation Medal.
Publications
Pollio AR, Fries AC, Yang Y, Hughes JJ, Fung CK, Conte MA, Kuschner RA, Collins ND, Macias EA, Hang J. Clustered cases of human adenovirus types 4, 7, and 14 infections in US Department of Defense Beneficiaries during the 2018-2019 season. J Med Virol. 2023 Feb;95(2):e28571. doi: 10.1002/jmv.28571. PMID: 36762593.
Hughes JJ, Yang Y, Fries AC, Maljkovic Berry I, Pollio AR, Fung CK, Karasavvas N, Jarman RG, Kushner RA, Kajon AE, Collins ND, Macias E, Hang J. Complete Genome Sequences of Two Human Adenovirus Type 55 Isolates from South Korea and the United States. Microbiol Resour Announc. 2021 Feb 4;10(5):e01347-20. doi: 10.1128/MRA.01347-20. PMID: 33541877.
Collins ND, Adhikari A, Yang Y, Kuschner RA, Karasavvas N, Binn LN, Walls SD, Graf PCF, Myers CA, Jarman RG, Hang J. Live Oral Adenovirus Type 4 and Type 7 Vaccine Induces Durable Antibody Response. Vaccines (Basel). 2020 Jul 23;8(3):411. doi: 10.3390/vaccines8030411. PMID: 32718082.
Wan XF, Tang CY, Ritter D, Wang Y, Li T, Segovia K, Kosikova M, Johnson M, Kwon HJ, Xie H, Hammer RD, McElroy JA, Hamid A, Collins ND, Hang J, Camp S. SARS-CoV-2 show no infectivity at later stages in a prolonged COVID-19 patient despite positivity in RNA testing. J Med Virol. 2021 Jul;93(7):4570-4575. doi: 10.1002/jmv.27001. Epub 2021 Apr 23. PMID: 33830520.
Hang J, Kajon AE, Graf PCF, Berry IM, Yang Y, Sanborn MA, Fung CK, Adhikari A, Balansay-Ames MS, Myers CA, Binn LN, Jarman RG, Kuschner RA, Collins ND. Human Adenovirus Type 55 Distribution, Regional Persistence, and Genetic Variability. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020 Jul;26(7):1497-1505. doi: 10.3201/eid2607.191707.PMID: 32568062
Yu J, Collins ND, Mercado NB, McMahan K, Chandrashekar A, Liu J, Anioke T, Chang A, Giffin VM, Hope DL, Sellers D, Nampanya F, Gardner S, Barrett J, Wan H, Velasco J, Teow E, Cook A, Van Ry A, Pessaint L, Andersen H, Lewis MG, Hofer C, Burke DS, Barkei EK, King HAD, Subra C, Bolton D, Modjarrad K, Michael NL, Barouch DH. Protective Efficacy of Gastrointestinal SARS-CoV-2 Delivery against Intranasal and Intratracheal SARS-CoV-2 Challenge in Rhesus Macaques. J Virol. 2022 Jan 26;96(2):e0159921. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01599-21. Epub 2021 Oct 27. PMID: 34705557.
Li L, Collins ND, Widen SG, Davis EH, Kaiser JA, White MM, Greenberg MB, Barrett ADT, Bourne N, Sarathy VV. Attenuation of Zika Virus by Passage in Human HeLa Cells. Vaccines (Basel). 2019 Aug 20;7(3):93. doi: 10.3390/vaccines7030093. PMID: 31434319.
Collins ND, Shan C, Nunes BTD, Widen SG, Shi PY, Barrett ADT, Sarathy VV. Using Next Generation Sequencing to Study the Genetic Diversity of Candidate Live Attenuated Zika Vaccines. Vaccines (Basel). 2020 Apr 3;8(2):161. doi: 10.3390/vaccines8020161. PMID: 32260110.
Park R, Chandrasekaran P, Hernandez H, Lakhal-Naouar I, Peachman KK, Hack HR, Coleman D, Ouellette J, Darden JM, M'hamdi O, Sugiharto VA, Chen HW, Schilling MA, Simons MP, Collins ND, Johnson YS, Jagodzinski LL, Peel SA. Validation of SARS-CoV-2 pooled testing for surveillance using the Panther Fusion® system: Impact of pool size, automation, and assay chemistry. PLoS One. 2022 Nov 7;17(11):e0276729. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0276729. eCollection 2022.PMID: 36342921
Collins ND, Widen SG, Li L, Swetnam DM, Shi PY, Tesh RB, Sarathy VV. Inter- and intra-lineage genetic diversity of wild-type Zika viruses reveals both common and distinctive nucleotide variants and clusters of genomic diversity. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2019;8(1):1126-1138. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2019.1645572. PMID: 31355708.