Michael D. Collins

Telephone: (310) 206-6730
E-mail: mdc@ucla.edu

Associate Professor (Environmental Health Sciences), was appointed in 1993 to the School of Public Health. He received a B.S. in aeronautical and astronomical engineering (1971) and a M.S. in environmental engineering (1977) from the University of Illinois-Urbana, as well as a M.S.P.H. in public health (1981) and a Ph.D. in civil engineering (environmental science program) (1982) from the University of Missouri, Columbia. He held postdoctoral positions in Environmental Health in the Interdisciplinary Programs in Health in the School of Public Health at Harvard University in Boston, MA. and in Teratology at the Children's Hospital Research Foundation in Cincinnati, OH.

Dr. Collins' area of expertise is molecular developmental toxicology. His research is on the mechanisms of teratogenesis. The primary goal of his research effort is to use whole animal, cell biological and molecular techniques to examine the mechanisms of induction of neural tube defects. Agents that induce these defects include nutrients (e.g. folates, oxygen and vitamin A), environmental agents (e.g. cadmium and arsenic), genetic factors (e.g. Splotch and curly tail mutants) and disease (e.g. diabetes). Aside from the emphasis on neural tube defects such as spina bifida and exencephaly, current and historical experiments have focused on the perturbation of limb development.