Ai-ris Yonekura Collier, M.D.

Dr. Ai-ris Yonekura Collier is a physician-scientist specializing in high-risk pregnancy care in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at BIDMC. The goal of her translational research is to characterize the maternal cellular immune phenotype in pregnancy disorders like preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction and in the setting of infectious disease like Zika virus or SARS-CoV-2. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was Principal Investigator leading the hospital-wide COVID-19 Biorepository and a co-investigator for the Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 vaccine booster trial. This work builds upon prior work performing longitudinal observational studies in pregnant individuals exposed or infected with Zika virus and creating large clinical biospecimen repositories for translational immunologic studies in pregnancy. In addition to the work in the CTU, she is an enthusiastic educator and advocate for inclusion of pregnant and lactating individuals in observational and interventional clinical trials.

Dr. Collier obtained her M.D. through the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard Medical School where she spent time in the lab of Dr. Shannon Turley, evaluating a novel mechanism of cellular immune tolerance induction by lymph node stroma cells. She is using her background in immune tolerance to study the mechanisms of maternal immune tolerance to the fetus in placenta in healthy and complicated pregnancies. As a Maternal-Fetal Medicine clinician, she represents a cross-disciplinary collaboration between the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the CVVR.

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, B.S., 2005 (Major: Biology, Minor: Chemistry)

Harvard Medical School/ Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, Boston, MA, M.D., 2011 (Medicine)

Training

2011-2015 Resident Obstetrics and Gynecology University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

2015-2018 Clinical Fellow Maternal-Fetal Medicine Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)

Appointments

2018-Present, Staff Physician Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Dept. of Ob-Gyn) Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)

2018-Present, Physician-Scientist Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Department of Medicine BIDMC

2018-2022,     Instructor Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Harvard Medical School

2021-Present, Co-Director Barouch Clinical Trials BIDMC Unit, Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Department of Medicine

2022-Present, Assistant Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Harvard Medical School

Honors

2006, Arthur T. Hertig Research Scholar HMS Research

2008, Academy of Achievement 47th Annual International Summit Student Delegate Academy of Achievement Academic/Leadership

2013, Resident Award for highest CREOG score UCLA Clinical

2014, Resident Award for Excellence in Obstetrics UCLA/ Society for Maternal- Fetal Medicine Clinical

2014, Best Poster Presentation Obstetrical and Gynecological Assembly of Southern California Research

2016, Rookie of the Year Award BIDMC Chief Resident Award Teaching for new OB/GYN faculty

2017, Best Perinatology Trainee Presentation New England Perinatology Society Research

2018-2020, NIH Loan Repayment Program (LRP) NIH/NICHD Research

2021, Mentor Award ACOG, District I Teaching

2021, Rapid peer review award BIDMC Chief Resident Award Teaching, Research

2022, Translational Research Hubs Spark Grant Award

Publications

• Miller, J., Hachmann, N. P., Collier, A. Y., Lasrado, N., Mazurek, C. R., Patio, R. C., Powers, O., Surve, N., Theiler, J., Korber, B., & Barouch, D. H. (2023). Substantial Neutralization Escape by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variants BQ.1.1 and XBB.1. The New England journal of medicine, 10.1056/NEJMc2214314. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc2214314   [Article]


• Hachmann, N. P., Miller, J., Collier, A. Y., & Barouch, D. H. (2022). Neutralization Escape by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Subvariant BA.4.6. The New England journal of medicine, 387(20), 1904–1906. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc2212117   [Article]


• Valsecchio C, Winterton D, Fakhr BS, Collier AY, Nozari A, Ortoleva J, Mukerji S, Gibson LE, Carroll RW, Shaefi S, Pinciroli R, La Vita C, Ackman JB, Hohmann E, Arora P, Barth WH, Kaimal A, Ichinose F, Berra L;DELivery oF iNO (DELFINO) Network Collaborators. High-Dose Inhaled Nitric Oxide for the Treatment of Spontaneously Breathing Pregnant Patients With Severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pneumonia. Obstet Gynecol. April 2022. Accepted


• Tan CS, Collier AY,Yu J, Liu J, Chandrashekar A, McMahan KA, Jacob-Dolan C, He X, Roy V, Hauser BM, Munt JE, Mallory ML, Mattocks M, Powers JM, Meganck RM, Rowe M, Hemond R, Bondzie EA, Jaegle KH, Baric RS, Schmidt AG, Alter G, Le Gars M, Sadoff J, Barouch DH. Durability of Heterologous and Homologous COVID-19 Vaccine Boost Regimens. JAMA Network Open. June 2022. Accepted.


• Hachmann NP, Miller J, Collier AY, Ventura JD, Yu J, Rowe M, Bondzie EA, Powers O, Surve N, Hall K, Barouch DH. Neutralization Escape by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Subvariants BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5. N Engl J Med. 2022 Jun 22. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2206576. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35731894. [Article]


• Collier AY, Brown CM, McMahan KA, Yu J, Liu J, Jacob-Dolan C, Chandrashekar A, Tierney D, Ansel JL, Rowe M, Sellers D, Ahmad K, Aguayo R, Anioke T, Gardner S, Siamatu M, Bermudez-Rivera L, Hacker MR, Madoff LC, Barouch DH. Characterization of immune responses in fully vaccinated individuals after breakthrough infection with the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant. Sci Transl Med. 2022 Apr 20;14(641):eabn6150. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abn6150. Epub 2022 Apr 20. PMID: 35258323; PMCID: PMC8995036. [Article]


• Kaplonek P, Cizmeci D, Fischinger S, Collier AR, Suscovich T, Linde C, Broge T, Mann C, Amanat F, Dayal D, Rhee J, de St Aubin M, Nilles EJ, Musk ER, Menon AS, Saphire EO, Krammer F, Lauffenburger DA, Barouch DH, Alter G. mRNA-1273 and BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccines elicit antibodies with differences in Fc-mediated effector functions. Sci Transl Med. 2022 Mar 29:eabm2311. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abm2311. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35348368; PMCID: PMC8995030. [Article]


• Yu J, Collier AY, Rowe M, Mardas F, Ventura JD, Wan H, Miller J, Powers O, Chung B, Siamatu M, Hachmann NP, Surve N, Nampanya F, Chandrashekar A, Barouch DH. Comparable Neutralization of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 Variants. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2022 Feb 7:2022.02.06.22270533. doi: 10.1101/2022.02.06.22270533. Update in: N Engl J Med. 2022 Mar 16;: PMID: 35169817; PMCID: PMC8845515. [Article]


• Liu J, Chandrashekar A, Sellers D, Barrett J, Jacob-Dolan C, Lifton M, McMahan K, Sciacca M, VanWyk H, Wu C, Yu J, Collier AY, Barouch DH. Vaccines Elicit Highly Conserved Cellular Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 Omicron. Nature. 2022 Jan 31. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04465-y. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35102312. [Article]


• Collier AY, Yu J, McMahan K, Liu J, Chandrashekar A, Maron JS, Atyeo C, Martinez DR, Ansel JL, Aguayo R, Rowe M, Jacob-Dolan C, Sellers D, Barrett J, Ahmad K, Anioke T, VanWyk H, Gardner S, Powers O, Bondzie EA, Wan H, Baric RS, Alter G, Hacker MR, Barouch DH. Differential Kinetics of Immune Responses Elicited by Covid-19 Vaccines. N Engl J Med. 2021 Oct 15. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2115596. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34648703. [Article]