Success Stories

Kathy Collins: Stories from 10 Years of the Bakar Fellows Program

Benjamin Kuehn ― 3 min read

By: Niki Borghei

From the Bakar Fellows Program’s 10th anniversary series

For Dr. Kathy Collins, a professor in the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, joining the Bakar Fellows Program made entrepreneurship not only financially achievable, but it allowed her to see herself as the entrepreneur she would soon become. 

“Part of it was an identity issue. I am an academic. I am a student mentor. I am a great teacher. I am head of the Division of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology. I saw these things in my future. Was it ok to take time away from that? It was, but doing that with a community of people was crucial.”

Making the decision to apply was a watershed moment for her. Entering the world of entrepreneurship can be daunting, but for Dr. Collins, it was a huge boost just to get a vote of confidence that it was worth trying. “You never know if it’s gonna work out, but even the interview process was helpful. It was motivating to learn from people who knew this world. I had an opportunity to talk to lawyers, connect with investors, and join a community.” 

Dr. Collins’ entrepreneurial efforts turned out to be a huge success. Her company, KaRNAteq, explored new enzymes that copy RNA back into DNA and developed a way to use them to detect diseases. But that was only the beginning. 

“We had these enzymes that are good for our RNA sequencing application, but what they do biologically also presented a different opportunity,” she said. “This wasn’t something I envisioned when we started. We recognized the opportunity and we were able to get a big NIH grant for it, courtesy of the work we started with the Bakar Fellows Program. The second company is called Addition Therapeutics. It was the first UC Berkeley founder company in the Bakar Bioenginuity Hub.”

“Being part of the Bakar Fellows Program means having access to a community of people who have done something you want to do,” she continued, “‘How did you take this from your lab bench beyond your lab bench? At what stage did you take this beyond your lab bench? How did you negotiate?’ Talking to my Bakar Fellow colleagues and having them tell me I can do it and that it is worthwhile was something I needed.”