Jim Collins awarded 2025 IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology

Summary

At the 2025 IEEE Honors Ceremony, Jim Collins, faculty lead life sciences at the MIT Jameel Clinic was awarded the 2025 IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology for his pioneering work in the field of synthetic biology. The awards ceremony was part of the IEEE Vision, Innovation, and Challenges (VIC) Summit, held from 23 to 24 April 2025, marking the first time the gathering was hosted in Asia. Regina Barzilay, faculty lead for AI, MIT Jameel Clinic also earned honours, receiving the 2025 IEEE Frances E. Allen Medal, sponsored by IBM, for her groundbreaking contributions to machine learning and medicine.

Transcript

Mary Ellen Randall, President-Elect, IEEE:

The IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society sponsors the IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology.

This year’s medal recipient is recognised for contributions to synthetic gene circuits and programmable cells, launching the field of synthetic biology and impacting healthcare applications.

Metin Akay, member of the IEEE Advisory Board:

I am Metin Akay, representing the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

The IEEE Medal for Innovation in Healthcare Technologies is presented to Jim Collins for his outstanding work revolutionising the field of biomedicine.

Thank you.

Video voice over:

Medicine is evolving in ways once thought impossible, and James J. Collins has been a driving force behind this transformation.

His work in synthetic gene networks and programmable cells laid the groundwork for synthetic biology, creating new tools to diagnose and treat disease.

He developed synthetic biotics to combat infections and pioneered freeze-dried molecular tests used worldwide for detecting viruses like Ebola and COVID-19.

Thanks to Collins, cutting-edge medical technology is reaching people who need it most, strengthening healthcare on a global scale.

The IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology is sponsored by the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

‍Jim Collins, faculty lead life sciences, MIT Jameel Clinic:

I'd like to thank the IEEE for awarding me the IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology.

This is a great honour and a highly personal one.

I grew up in an IEEE household.

My dad, who is still with us, is an electrical engineer and was a member of the IEEE.

I grew up reading IEEE Spectrum, and my dad, when we were quite young, built an electronics lab in our basement so we could be exposed to electronic circuits.

I think this early exposure eventually inspired me to think about how we could build biological circuits out of DNA, RNA and proteins, and use these circuits to programme living cells with novel functions.

These efforts led to the field of synthetic biology and now whole new classes of diagnostics and therapeutics, which have transformed our ability to detect and treat infections and complex diseases.

So again, thank you, IEEE, for this fantastic honour.