Prof. Matthew Collins - on sabbatical for Michaelmas and Lent Terms 2024/25 |

Biography

I conduct research on the persistence of proteins in ancient samples, using modelling to explore the racemization of amino acids and thermal history to predict the survival of DNA and other molecules. Using a combination of approaches (including immunology and protein mass spectrometry) my research detects and interprets protein remnants in archaeological and fossil remains.

With former PhD student Dr Mike Buckley I developed ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry) a way to rapidly identify bone and other collagen based materials using peptide mass fingerprinting.

https://sites.google.com/palaeome.org/2018-ancient-proteins/home

Research

The application of ancient proteins to archaeology

Analysis of protein evolution and decay

I am presently involved in the following research projects in:

2016 - 2021 Niels Bohr Professor of Palaeoproteomics: University of Copenhagen: To establish new research capacity in plaeoprotemics in Denmark

2018 - 2023 Beasts to Craft: Parchment as a biological archive

2019 - 2023 ArcHives: Beeswax as a biological archive

Also visit: https://evogenomics.snm.ku.dk/palaeoproteomics/

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4226-5501

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew_Collins

Information for Prospective Postgraduate Students

Students that work with me have to be self motivated as my post in Cambridge is only 40%, 60% of the time I am in Copenhagen. At present I have sufficient students, and do not think that I can realistically supervise more than I am planning to take on in 2021 from the ChemArch and PlaCE ITNs

I do not take self funded students, but will try to work with you to help find funding.

I like to collaborate so if you do contact me, I may try to find a way for you to work with my colleagues and I.

Key Publications

Key publications:

Demarchi, B., Hall, S., Roncal-Herrero, T., Freeman, C. L., Woolley, J., Crisp, M. K., Wilson, J., Fotakis, A., Fischer, R., Kessler, B. M., Rakownikow Jersie-Christensen, R., Olsen, J. V., Haile, J., Thomas, J., Marean, C. W., Parkington, J., Presslee, S., Lee-Thorp, J., Ditchfield, P., … Collins, M. J. (2016). Protein sequences bound to mineral surfaces persist into deep time. eLife, 5, e17092.

Hendy, J., Colonese, A. C., Franz, I., Fernandes, R., Fischer, R., Orton, D., Lucquin, A., Spindler, L., Anvari, J., Stroud, E., Biehl, P. F., Speller, C., Boivin, N., Mackie, M., Jersie-Christensen, R. R., Olsen, J. V., Collins, M. J., Craig, O. E., & Rosenstock, E. (2018). Ancient proteins from ceramic vessels at Çatalhöyük West reveal the hidden cuisine of early farmers. Nature Communications, 9(1), 4064.

Jensen, T. Z. T., Niemann, J., Iversen, K. H., Fotakis, A. K., Gopalakrishnan, S., Vågene, Å. J., Pedersen, M. W., Sinding, M.-H. S., Ellegaard, M. R., Allentoft, M. E., Lanigan, L. T., Taurozzi, A. J., Nielsen, S. H., Dee, M. W., Mortensen, M. N., Christensen, M. C., Sørensen, S. A., Collins, M. J., Gilbert, M. T. P., … Schroeder, H. (2019). A 5700 year-old human genome and oral microbiome from chewed birch pitch. Nature Communications, 10(1), 5520.

Teasdale, M. D., Fiddyment, S., Vnouček, J., Mattiangeli, V., Speller, C., Binois, A., Carver, M., Dand, C., Newfield, T. P., Webb, C. C., Bradley, D. G., & Collins, M. J. (2017). The York Gospels: a 1000-year biological palimpsest. Royal Society Open Science, 4(10), 170988.

Verdugo, M. P., Mullin, V. E., Scheu, A., Mattiangeli, V., Daly, K. G., Maisano Delser, P., Hare, A. J., Burger, J., Collins, M. J., Kehati, R., Hesse, P., Fulton, D., Sauer, E. W., Mohaseb, F. A., Davoudi, H., Khazaeli, R., Lhuillier, J., Rapin, C., Ebrahimi, S., … Bradley, D. G. (2019). Ancient cattle genomics, origins, and rapid turnover in the Fertile Crescent. Science, 365(6449), 173–176.

Other publications:

List on Google Scholar

Publication

Journal articles

2018

O'Connell, TC. and Collins, MJ., 2018. Comment on “Ecological niche of Neanderthals from Spy Cave revealed by nitrogen isotopes of individual amino acids in collagen.” Journal of Human Evolution, v. 117
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.05.006

2016 (Accepted for publication)

Coutu, AN., Lee-Thorp, J., Collins, MJ. and Lane, PJ., 2016 (Accepted for publication). Mapping the Elephants of the 19th Century East African Ivory Trade with a Multi-Isotope Approach. PLoS One, v. 11
Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0163606

2016

Charlton, S., Alexander, M., Collins, M., Milner, N., Mellars, P., O'Connell, TC., Stevens, RE. and Craig, OE., 2016. Finding Britain's last hunter-gatherers: A new biomolecular approach to 'unidentifiable' bone fragments utilising bone collagen JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, v. 73
Doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2016.07.014

2015

Fiddyment, S., Holsinger, B., Ruzzier, C., Devine, A., Binois, A., Albarella, U., Fischer, R., Nichols, E., Curtis, A., Cheese, E., Teasdale, MD., Checkley-Scott, C., Milner, SJ., Rudy, KM., Johnson, EJ., Vnouček, J., Garrison, M., McGrory, S., Bradley, DG. and Collins, MJ., 2015. Animal origin of 13th-century uterine vellum revealed using noninvasive peptide fingerprinting. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, v. 112
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1512264112

Welker, F., Collins, MJ., Thomas, JA., Wadsley, M., Brace, S., Cappellini, E., Turvey, ST., Reguero, M., Gelfo, JN., Kramarz, A., Burger, J., Thomas-Oates, J., Ashford, DA., Ashton, PD., Rowsell, K., Porter, DM., Kessler, B., Fischer, R., Baessmann, C., Kaspar, S., Olsen, JV., Kiley, P., Elliott, JA., Kelstrup, CD., Mullin, V., Hofreiter, M., Willerslev, E., Hublin, J-J., Orlando, L., Barnes, I. and MacPhee, RDE., 2015. Ancient proteins resolve the evolutionary history of Darwin's South American ungulates. Nature, v. 522
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/nature14249

2014

Warinner, C., Hendy, J., Speller, C., Cappellini, E., Fischer, R., Trachsel, C., Arneborg, J., Lynnerup, N., Craig, OE., Swallow, DM., Fotakis, A., Christensen, RJ., Olsen, JV., Liebert, A., Montalva, N., Fiddyment, S., Charlton, S., Mackie, M., Canci, A., Bouwman, A., Rühli, F., Gilbert, MTP. and Collins, MJ., 2014. Direct evidence of milk consumption from ancient human dental calculus. Sci Rep, v. 4
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/srep07104

Bates, MR., Wenban-Smith, FF., Bello, SM., Bridgland, DR., Buck, LT., Collins, MJ., Keen, DH., Leary, J., Parfitt, SA., Penkman, K., Rhodes, E., Ryssaert, C. and Whittaker, JE., 2014. Late persistence of the Acheulian in southern Britain in an MIS 8 interstadial: Evidence from Harnham, Wiltshire Quaternary Science Reviews, v. 101
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.07.002

Rasmussen, M., Anzick, SL., Waters, MR., Skoglund, P., DeGiorgio, M., Stafford, TW., Rasmussen, S., Moltke, I., Albrechtsen, A., Doyle, SM., Poznik, GD., Gudmundsdottir, V., Yadav, R., Malaspinas, A-S., White, SS., Allentoft, ME., Cornejo, OE., Tambets, K., Eriksson, A., Heintzman, PD., Karmin, M., Korneliussen, TS., Meltzer, DJ., Pierre, TL., Stenderup, J., Saag, L., Warmuth, VM., Lopes, MC., Malhi, RS., Brunak, S., Sicheritz-Ponten, T., Barnes, I., Collins, M., Orlando, L., Balloux, F., Manica, A., Gupta, R., Metspalu, M., Bustamante, CD., Jakobsson, M., Nielsen, R. and Willerslev, E., 2014. The genome of a Late Pleistocene human from a Clovis burial site in western Montana. Nature, v. 506
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/nature13025

Warinner, C., Rodrigues, JFM., Vyas, R., Trachsel, C., Shved, N., Grossmann, J., Radini, A., Hancock, Y., Tito, RY., Fiddyment, S., Speller, C., Hendy, J., Charlton, S., Luder, HU., Salazar-García, DC., Eppler, E., Seiler, R., Hansen, LH., Castruita, JAS., Barkow-Oesterreicher, S., Teoh, KY., Kelstrup, CD., Olsen, JV., Nanni, P., Kawai, T., Willerslev, E., von Mering, C., Lewis, CM., Collins, MJ., Gilbert, MTP., Rühli, F. and Cappellini, E., 2014. Pathogens and host immunity in the ancient human oral cavity. Nat Genet, v. 46
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2906

2013

Penkman, KEH., Preece, RC., Bridgland, DR., Keen, DH., Meijer, T., Parfitt, SA., White, TS. and Collins, MJ., 2013. An aminostratigraphy for the British Quaternary based on Bithynia opercula. Quat Sci Rev, v. 61
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.10.046

2012

Cappellini, E., Jensen, LJ., Szklarczyk, D., Ginolhac, A., da Fonseca, RAR., Stafford, TW., Holen, SR., Collins, MJ., Orlando, L., Willerslev, E., Gilbert, MTP. and Olsen, JV., 2012. Proteomic analysis of a pleistocene mammoth femur reveals more than one hundred ancient bone proteins. J Proteome Res, v. 11
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1021/pr200721u

Allentoft, ME., Collins, M., Harker, D., Haile, J., Oskam, CL., Hale, ML., Campos, PF., Samaniego, JA., Gilbert, MTP., Willerslev, E., Zhang, G., Scofield, RP., Holdaway, RN. and Bunce, M., 2012. The half-life of DNA in bone: measuring decay kinetics in 158 dated fossils. Proc Biol Sci, v. 279
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.1745

2011

Penkman, KEH., Preece, RC., Bridgland, DR., Keen, DH., Meijer, T., Parfitt, SA., White, TS. and Collins, MJ., 2011. A chronological framework for the British Quaternary based on Bithynia opercula. Nature, v. 476
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/nature10305

2010

Penkman, KEH., Preece, RC., Keen, DH. and Collins, MJ., 2010. Amino acid geochronology of the type Cromerian of West Runton, Norfolk, UK. Quat Int, v. 228
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2010.06.020

Cappellini, E., Gilbert, MTP., Geuna, F., Fiorentino, G., Hall, A., Thomas-Oates, J., Ashton, PD., Ashford, DA., Arthur, P., Campos, PF., Kool, J., Willerslev, E. and Collins, MJ., 2010. A multidisciplinary study of archaeological grape seeds. Naturwissenschaften, v. 97
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-009-0629-3

Campos, PF., Sher, A., Mead, JI., Tikhonov, A., Buckley, M., Collins, M., Willerslev, E. and Gilbert, MTP., 2010. Clarification of the taxonomic relationship of the extant and extinct ovibovids, Ovibos, Praeovibos, Euceratherium and Bootherium Quaternary Science Reviews, v. 29
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.05.006

2009

King, GA., Gilbert, MTP., Willerslev, E., Collins, MJ. and Kenward, H., 2009. Recovery of DNA from archaeological insect remains: first results, problems and potential Journal of Archaeological Science, v. 36
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.01.006

2008

Blyth, AJ., Baker, A., Collins, MJ., Penkman, KEH., Gilmour, MA., Moss, JS., Genty, D. and Drysdale, RN., 2008. Molecular organic matter in speleothems and its potential as an environmental proxy QUATERNARY SCI REV, v. 27
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.02.002

2007

Willerslev, E., Cappellini, E., Boomsma, W., Nielsen, R., Hebsgaard, MB., Brand, TB., Hofreiter, M., Bunce, M., Poinar, HN., Dahl-Jensen, D., Johnsen, S., Steffensen, JP., Bennike, O., Schwenninger, J-L., Nathan, R., Armitage, S., de Hoog, C-J., Alfimov, V., Christl, M., Beer, J., Muscheler, R., Barker, J., Sharp, M., Penkman, KEH., Haile, J., Taberlet, P., Gilbert, MTP., Casoli, A., Campani, E. and Collins, MJ., 2007. Ancient biomolecules from deep ice cores reveal a forested southern Greenland. Science, v. 317
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1141758

Gilbert, MTP., Tomsho, LP., Rendulic, S., Packard, M., Drautz, DI., Sher, A., Tikhonov, A., Dalén, L., Kuznetsova, T., Kosintsev, P., Campos, PF., Higham, T., Collins, MJ., Wilson, AS., Shidlovskiy, F., Buigues, B., Ericson, PGP., Germonpré, M., Götherström, A., Iacumin, P., Nikolaev, V., Nowak-Kemp, M., Willerslev, E., Knight, JR., Irzyk, GP., Perbost, CS., Fredrikson, KM., Harkins, TT., Sheridan, S., Miller, W. and Schuster, SC., 2007. Whole-genome shotgun sequencing of mitochondria from ancient hair shafts. Science, v. 317
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1146971

Penkman, KEH., Preece, RC., Keen, DH., Maddy, D., Schreve, DC. and Collins, MJ., 2007. Testing the aminostratigraphy of fluvial archives: the evidence from intra-crystalline proteins within freshwater shells Quaternary Science Reviews, v. 26
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.06.034

2006

Gilbert, MTP., Hansen, AJ., Willerslev, E., Turner-Walker, G. and Collins, M., 2006. Insights into the processes behind the contamination of degraded human teeth and bone samples with exogenous sources of DNA International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, v. 16
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1002/oa.832

2005

Gilbert, MTP., Rudbeck, L., Willerslev, E., Hansen, AJ., Smith, C., Penkman, KEH., Prangenberg, K., Nielsen-Marsh, CM., Jans, ME., Arthur, P., Lynneruo, N., Turner-Walker, G., Biddle, M., Kjølbye, B. and Collins, MJ., 2005. Biochemical and physical correlates of DNA contamination in archaeological human bones and teeth excavated at Matera, Italy Journal of Archaeological Science, v. 32
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2004.12.008

Parfitt, SA., Barendregt, RW., Breda, M., Candy, I., Collins, MJ., Coope, GR., Durbidge, P., Field, MH., Lee, JR., Lister, AM., Mutch, R., Penkman, KEH., Preece, RC., Rose, J., Stringer, CB., Symmons, R., Whittaker, JE., Wymer, JJ. and Stuart, AJ., 2005. The earliest record of human activity in northern Europe NATURE, v. 438
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1038/Nature04227

Teaching and Supervisions

Teaching:

Current students:

Carla de Soto Parchment decay and conservation (with Devro)
Erin M Keenan Early ZooMS of N. American Fauna (Texas)
Tuuli Kasso (Copenhagen)
Laura Vinas (Copenhaggen)
Bharath Nair (Copenhagen)
Bia Fonseca (Copenhagen, with Karina Sand)
Liam Llanigan (Copenhagen, with Hannes Schroeder and Tom Gilbert
Ruairidh Macleod (Cambridge, MPhil)
Yuan Yue (Cambridge)
Miranda Evan (Cambridge, with Tamsin O'Connell, and Jessie Hendy, York)
Tianyi Wang (Cambridge with Piers Mitchell)
Sophie Rabinow (Cambridge with Piers Mitchell)

Past students:

Andrew Spooner 1992 Industry Environment
Ben Stern 1993 Senior Lecturer Bradford
Emman Waite 1997 Industry Bioscience
Dave Robertson 1998 Industry Petroleum
Oliver Craig 1998 Professor, York
Colin Smith 2000 Senior Lecturer, LaTrobe, University
Jen Hiller 2001 Industry
Miranda Jans 2001 Forensics (US Military)
Kirsty Penkman 2001 Professor York
Rebecca Griffin 2002 Administration Canberra
Hannah Koon 2003 Senior Lecturer Bradford
Simon McGrory 2006 Project Officer (Heritage)
Rose Drew 2004 Osteoarchaeology
Mike Buckley 2010 Royal Society Research Professor, Manchester
Nienke Van Doorn 2012 Industry York Archaeological Trust
Isabella von Holstein 2012 PDRA, Amsterdam
Jo Powell 2013 Industry
Marc Wadsley 2013 Bioinformatics NHS
Yang Yue 2013 Industry Environment
Frido Welker 2017 Assistant Professor, Copenhagen
Jessica Hendy 2017 Lecturer, York
Sean Doherty, 2016, Postdoc Exeter
Jiri Vnoucek, Postdoc B2C, Conservator Royal Library
Keri Rowsell,Research Administration (UCL)
Ioannis Kontopoulos, Postdoc (Copenhagen)
Theis Jensen, Postdoc (Copenhagen)
Abigail Lowe, Postdoc (Copenhagen)
Talari Gopai, PhD (UCD)

Research supervision:

I currently supervise students investigating in a range of topics related to the use of proteins to address archaeological research questions from evolution, to diet, disease, demography and chronology. I am interested in supervising students with a passion to work across disciplines who wish to study for an MPhil or a PhD in the following topics:

Modelling the survival and decay of ancient proteins
Mathematical approaches to the analysis of complex datasets
Developing low cost tools for demography
Developing novel methods to extract and analyse ancient proteins
Applying ancient protein analysis to their archaeological repertoire

Other Professional Activities

Fellow of the British Academy

Niels Bohr Professor in Palaeoproteomics, University of Copenhagen

Member of the Royal Danish Society of Science and Letters

Job Titles

McDonald Professor in Palaeoproteomics

General Info

Available for consultancy

Research Expertise / Fields of study:

Material Culture

Biomolecular Archaeology

Cultural Heritage

Contact Details

Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge

matthew [at] palaeome.org

Cambridge

CB2 3DZ

Affiliations

Person keywords:

Ancient Proteins

ZooMS

Immunology

Proteomics

Parchment

Beeswax

Subjects:

Archaeological Science

Archaeology

Themes:

Science, Technology and Innovation

Material Culture

Heritage

Human Evolutionary Studies

Geographical areas:

Africa

Britain

Egypt and Sudan

Europe

Southeast Asia

Periods of interest:

Medieval

Other Historical

Palaeolithic/Mesolithic

Post-Medieval

Department of Archaeology

Prof. Matthew Collins - on sabbatical for Michaelmas and Lent Terms 2024/25