In 1998, Collinson received a PhD in molecular microbiology from the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry of the Queen Mary University of London, supervised by Mike Curtis.[1][2] She became interested in electron microscopy towards the end of her PhD, after the excitement of seeing the bacteria after years of studying bacterial protein bands on gels.[2] That same year, she became a postdoctoral research assistant at Imperial College London and University College London, working with Colin Hopkins.[1]
In 2004, Collinson became the head of electron microscopy at a molecular cell biology laboratory at University College London.[1] In 2006, Collinson became the head of electron microscopy at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute.[1][2] In 2013, she collaborated with a team of researchers at the University of York on a large collaborative grant to the UK Medical Research Council to purchase a new type of combined electron and light microscope.[2] In 2015, when the London Research Unit became part of the Francis Crick Institute, she became the head of electron microscopy there.[1][3][4] In her role as head of that effort she is involved in many collaborative projects,[5] publishing on a range of topics.[6]
In 2019, Collinson co-edited Correlative Imaging: Focusing on the Future with Paul Verkade, which was published by Wiley.[7] She guest edited a volume of Journal of Cell Science with Guillaume Jacquemet.[5]
In 2024 she received the Distinguished Scientist Award in biological sciences from the Microscopy Society of America.[8]
