Anne Collins studied Biochemistry at the University of Glasgow and obtained her PhD, in cancer biology from the University of Edinburgh. Subsequently, she was a Postdoctoral fellow in cancer research at the Department of Surgery and Urology, Newcastle University Medical school and until 2018 was an Associate Professor in the Cancer Research Unit, Department of Biology at the University of York. Her research focused on tumour heterogeneity, stem cells and their role in cancer heterogeneity and treatment response. During this time, she collaborated with partners in the pharmaceutical industry and biotech on cancer stem cell targets and next-generation cancer models as better surrogates for patients.

A major concern in cancer research surrounds the translatability of cancer models and poor reproducibility of research output which is a major contributing factor to the low rate of clinical trial success. To address these issues, Anne in collaboration with Dr Shona Lang, founded a consultancy company, QED Biomedical. They use evidence-based methodology to analyse the robustness and reproducibility of data and disease models. In October 2020 Anne joined the PAASP network and takes over the region responsibility for UK and Ireland. She is also the contact person for topics on tumour biology and meta analysis within the PAASP team.