The Collins Genomics Lab
at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Welcome to the Collins Genomics Lab!
We are a group of collaborative cancer researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who are mining the human genome to answer three questions:
1. Predisposition: who is most likely to get cancer—especially early-onset disease—due to genetics?
2. Tumorigenesis: how does the DNA in each healthy cell encode resilience or susceptibility to becoming a cancer cell?
3. Early intervention: what is the role of genomics in anticipating & intercepting cancer as early as possible?
Hot off the press (our latest studies)
Chen et al., iScience (2026) | CGL masters student Jiayi Chen led a statistical analysis of the world's largest cancer sequencing dataset to understand why most potent cancer driver genes are only mutated in a handful of cancer subtypes.
Fields et al., medRxiv (2026) | We mined the largest US biobank to study 1,496 individuals with unexplained familial cancers, revealing risk contributions from common, noncoding, and structural genomic factors.
LoPiccolo* & Collins* et al., medRxiv (2026) | With our colleagues in Thoracic Oncology, we scrutinized the genomes of 251 lung cancer patients diagnosed before 45 years old, discovering several new genomic risk factors.
Past research highlights
Gillani & Collins et al., Science (2025) | By comparing the genomes of children with cancer to cancer-free adults, we discovered new explanations for these childhood malignancies.
Collins et al., Cell (2022) | We spearheaded an international federation of hospitals, commercial laboratories, and national biobanks to compare one million genomes across 54 diseases.
Collins & Brand et al., Nature (2020) | We led one arm of the initial version of the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD), the world's largest reference for human genetic variation.
Curious to learn more?
Read about our current research topics, meet the members of our team, learn about our lab's values, or review a list of our publications.
Want to get involved?
• For scientists: we are always looking for new members to join our team! See our latest opportunities.
• For generous individuals: your tax-deductible donations can fuel our cutting-edge research. Support CGL.
