FY 19 School Update – Basic & Clinical Sciences, Centers and Institutes

Basic Sciences

Anatomy & Neurobiology – Jennifer Luebke
  • Doug Rosene, PhD, was awarded 2 R01 grants and an R21 grant to study the role of white matter and myelin changes during normal aging, as well as an R21 grant on recovery of motor function following cortical injury.
  • Maya Medalla, PhD, was awarded an R01 grant to study circuit structure and dynamics of prefrontal areas.
  • Kip Thomas, PhD, established multiple significant contracts with Pfizer and Biogen.
  • Rhoda Au, PhD, received a 2019 Cure Coin Award at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference for “her pioneering work on the use of digital technology to diagnose and predict the development of Alzheimer’s and other Dementias.”
  • Chandramouli Chandrasekaran, PhD, received the 2019 Jack Spivack Outstanding Young Investigator Award, and published Macaque dorsal premotor cortex exhibits decision-related activity only when specific stimulus-response associations are known. Nat Commun. 2019;10(1):1793.
  • Student Awards
    • Masters student Amara Ayoub received the 2019 Ruth and Martin Levine Scholarship for academic excellence.
    • PhD student Katie Babcock received the 2019 Dr. Erika Ebbel Angle Community Service Award.
Biochemistry – David Harris
  • We hired Mohsan Saeed, PhD, who began his appointment as an Assistant Professor on March 15. Dr. Saeed’s recruitment has been a joint effort between the Department of Biochemistry and the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL), where his laboratory space is located. This arrangement is highly synergistic, since a part of Dr. Saeed’s planned research program, involving analysis of viral “degradomes,” meshes extremely well with the proteomics and mass spectrometry expertise of the Department of Biochemistry. Dr. Saeed performed his graduate work with Prof. Takaji Wakita at the University of Tokyo, and his postdoctoral training with Dr. Charles M. Rice at The Rockefeller University, in both places working on hepatitis C virus.
  • We also hired Shawn Lyons, PhD, who will join the department as an Assistant Professor on October 1. Dr. Lyons obtained his PhD in the laboratory of Dr. William Marzluff working on histone mRNA metabolism. He completed his postdoctoral training with Dr. Paul Anderson at Harvard Medical School (Brigham and Women’s) working on the regulation of protein synthesis during acute stress response in cells, in particular how RNA metabolism and ribosome biogenesis are altered in response to stress. His research program is extremely exciting, and he will further enhance our growing RNA biology group.
Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics – David Farb

The Department was ranked #12 out of 92 in NIH funding nationally (Blue Hill Institute for Medical Research).

  • Rutao Cui, PhD, published a paper in Cell on the role of the STK19 kinase in the progression of melanoma: Pharmacological Targeting of STK19 Inhibits Oncogenic NRAS-Driven Melanomagenesis.  2019 Feb 21;176(5):1113-1127.
  • Neil Ganem, PhD, published their studies of Hippo pathway signaling by the STK25 kinase, Identification of the kinase STK25 as an upstream activator of LATS signaling. Nat Commun. 2019 Apr 4;10(1):1547.
  • Shelley J. Russek, PhD, was selected as a standing committee member of the NINDS Clinical Neuroplasticity and Neurotransmitters (CNNT) study section.
  • David H. Farb, PhD, was awarded supplemental support to the NIGMS T32 in BioMolecular Pharmacology, for the development of curricular enhancements to the PhD program in conjunction with the BU’s BEST program, specifically to create a new course in the pharmacology core curriculum, “Technical and Professional Skills in Pharmacology,” that will provide basic instruction in scientific writing, experimental design, and computational skills for modern pharmacological research.

The department’s strategic alliances with Pfizer and Biogen are thriving. On November 16, 2018, BU Pharmacology and Biogen hosted the symposium “Innovations in Neuroscience,” at Biogen’s Kendall Square research site in Cambridge. Sixteen world renowned neuroscientists presented innovative research enhanced by the use of cutting-edge technologies attended by a capacity audience.

Faculty Leadership Appointments

  • Rachel Flynn, PhD, was appointed Co-Director of the Genome Science Institute.
  • Valentina Sabino, PhD, received the 2019 Jack Spivack Excellence in Neuroscience Emerging Leader award for her research into the neurobiology of addiction and stress-related disorders.
  • Camron Bryant, PhD, received the 2019 Jack Spivack Excellence in Neuroscience Young Investigator award for his research on the factors and neurological mechanisms underlying substance abuse disorders.

Student Awards

  • Emily Mason-Osann, Pharmacology PhD candidate, was awarded the PhRMA Foundation Predoctoral Award on “Defining Mechanism and Therapeutics Targets in the Alternative Lengthening of the Telomeres Pathway.” This award provides up to $20,000 per year for up to two years for Emily to study therapeutic targeting of the ALT pathway in osteosarcomas, working under the mentorship of Rachel L. Flynn, PhD.
  • Franco Puleo, Pharmacology PhD candidate, was awarded the 2019-20 American Physiology Society Porter Physiology Development Fellowship for his research on “Sympathetic Nervous System Regulation of the NCC in Salt Sensitive Hypertension.” This award provides $28,300 for Franco to focus on the renal mechanisms of blood pressure control in salt sensitive hypertension under the mentorship of Richard D. Wainford, PhD.
Physiology & Biophysics – David Atkinson
  • In the 2018-2019 academic year the faculty published 26-peer reviewed manuscripts.
  • The work of Minjing Liu, PhD, Xiaohu Mei, PhD, Haya Herscovitz, PhD and David Atkinson, PhD, was featured in a commentary by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, ASBMB Today. “A close-up of nascent HDL formation,” Laurel Oldach January 01, 2019.
  • Graduate student Olivia Cavez represented GMS at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) conference in San Antonio, Texas.
  • Christopher Gabel, PhD, Associate Professor, was awarded one of five grants from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for Spinal Cord Injury Research. Dr. Gabel was also the recipient of a Spivack Neuroscience Emerging Leader award.
  • Aaron Young, PhD, Assistant Professor, was honored by the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine in receiving the Crest Oral-B P&G Professional Oral Health Excellence in Teaching in the Basic Sciences Award as selected by the DMD Class of 2022.
  • Esther Bullitt, PhD, Associate Professor, has been appointed President-Elect of the Microscopy Society of America.
  • Mehraj Awal (Gabel lab) and Angela Urdaneta (Atkinson lab) were first and second place award winners at the 2019 Henry I. Russek Student Achievement Day.

Clinical Sciences

Anesthesiology – Rafael Ortega
  • During the last academic year, we published the book, “OK to Proceed?” edited by Lewis, Canelli, and Ortega. This award-winning publication blends printed text and multimedia and was the recipient of the 2018 Best Scientific Award at the Post Graduate Anesthesia Assembly in New York. This patient safety education tool is presented to every clinician, including medical students, working on the Medical Campus.
  • The Department of Anesthesiology has joined BU Medical Group. As such, it is the last clinical unit to join this multi-specialty organization. Rafael Ortega, MD, was appointed Chair of the Department and our residency program was reaccredited with commendation for its strict adherence to the guidelines of the ACGME. The consolidation of most anesthetizing locations in the integrated procedural platform on BMC’s Menino Pavilion presents unique opportunities for trainees and faculty alike to synergize and collaborate in clinical, educational, and research endeavors.
Dermatology – Rhoda Alani
  • The Department of Dermatology was delighted to be able to establish two new Endowed Professorships in the past year including:
    1. The Vincent Falanga, MD, Junior Faculty Chair in Dermatology and installation of inaugural recipient, Dr. Deborah Lang
    2. The Lynne J.Goldberg, MD, Junior Faculty Professorship in Dermatopathology and installation of inaugural recipient,  Dr. Hye Jin Chung
  • Additionally, Dr. Slava Labunskyy was named to the Peter E. Pochi, MD, Junior Faculty Research Chair in Dermatology.
  • Several new grant awards were received by the department which included the following:
    • Dr. Rhoda Alani, Herbert Mescon Endowed Professor and Chair of Dermatology, was the recipient of an Established Investigator Award of $375,000 from the Melanoma Research Alliance to study “Epigenetic Regulation of Resistance to Targeted Therapies in Melanoma.”
    • Dr. Slava Labunskyy, Peter E. Pochi Chair in Dermatology, was awarded a 5-year grant from the National Institute of Aging to study Molecular  Mechanisms of Translational Regulation in Aging.
    • The Department of Dermatology was also delighted to finalize the recruitment of Dr. Vladimir Botchkarev as a full-time faculty member starting July 2019.  We are particularly thrilled to welcome his exciting new research program in aging  and the establishment of a Naked Mole Rat facility and center for the study of aging at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.
Emergency Medicine – Jonathan Olshaker
  • Elissa Perkins, MD, has established a nationally recognized and modeled Emergency Department HCV screening and referral to treatment program.
  • Edward Bernstein, MD, continues his national leadership in Emergency Department substance use disorder referral to treatment and leads the innovative BMC Faster Paths to Treatment opioid use disorder urgent care center.
  • Lauren Nentwich, MD, became President-Elect of the BMC Medical Dental Staff and was voted the Physician of the Year by the Massachusetts College of Emergency Physicians.
  • Emergency Medicine was the second most popular specialty choice of the 2019 Class of the BUSM.
  • The BUSM and BMC Emergency Medicine and Trauma Surgery Injury Prevention Center continued its leadership, research and advocacy on violence  intervention, opioid harm reduction, elder fall prevention  and other injury prevention initiatives.
Family Medicine – Christopher Manassah, ad interim
  • Dr. Scarlet Soriano was recruited as Director of Group Medical Visits and Wellness-Based Healthcare Transformation. Under Dr. Soriano’s leadership, we have launched an 8-week integrative chronic pain group visit program including interactive sessions on the neuroscience of chronic pain, nutrition that is both affordable and delicious, mind-body practices for relaxation and pain modulation, aromatherapy for stress reduction, acupuncture and acupressure, changing negative self-talk, and the benefits of yoga and mindful movement.
  • The Family Medicine Clinic moved to Melnea Cass Blvd. – Embodying the commitment of community activist Melnea Agnes Cass, Family Medicine faculty practice moved this year to the boulevard dedicated to her tremendous work, to continue the delivery of full-spectrum, comprehensive primary care and model of learning for residents and medical students, accomplished through an multi-disciplinary team.
  • Family Medicine in collaboration with Internal medicine hospitalist service embarked on a joint venture of staffing the newly expanded Menino Observation unit delivering evidence-based, patient-centered care impacting efficient throughput responding to the hospital capacity and volume demands.
Medical Sciences & Education – Hee-Young Park
  • Hosted 14th Annual McCahan BUMC Education Day with a keynote lecture on Microaggression.
  • Kathleen Swenson, MS, MPH, Assistant Professor, received the Educator of the Year Award for GMS Master’s program.
  • Expanded the BAHEC and BUMC partnership to include BU undergraduate students enrolled in the Kilachand Honors College. Kilachand students designed and taught a global health curriculum to BAHEC students as an afterschool program course in the spring semester of 2019.  In addition to exposing BAHEC students to the issues surrounding global health, they mentored the students. Kilachand students will continue to offer the course to BAHEC students every spring semester.
Medicine – David Coleman
  • Jeffrey Samet, MD, MA, MPH, received an $89 million award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to participate in a nationwide research study addressing the opioid crisis, with an ambitious goal of curbing opioid deaths in a broad swath of Massachusetts by 40 percent in the next three years.
  • Vasan Ramachandran, MD, received a $21.4 million award from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to lead a new cohort study called the Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal (RURAL) Study. More than 50 investigators from 16 institutions across the country will participate in the six-year project to understand why certain factors amplify risk in some rural counties and what renders some communities more resilient. Researchers will be studying 4,000 multi-ethnic participants from 10 of the low-income rural counties in Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Neurology – David Greer
  • Ann McKee, MD, was one of four BU faculty named a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor, the University’s highest faculty honor. In addition, Dr. McKee who also is director of the BU CTE Center, and chief of neuropathology, VA Boston Healthcare System, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and she received an Alzheimer’s Association AAIC Lifetime Achievement Award for her significant scientific contributions and demonstrated lifelong commitments to progress against Alzheimer’s and dementia.
  • Nearly 500 news outlets featured Dr. Robert Stern’s New England Journal of Medicine article on whether an experimental PET scan could detect abnormal tau protein in brains of living former NFL players.
Obstetrics & Gynecology – Aviva Lee-Parritz
  • The Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology was ranked #12 of the 2020 Best Graduate Schools Rankings – Medical Programs and Specialties. Ours was the only program in the Northeast to receive this level of recognition in this area. These rankings are based solely on ratings by medical school deans and senior faculty from the list of schools surveyed.
  • Nyia Noel, MD, MPH, received a CTSI grant for her project: Same Day Discharge Intervention after Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery. We are focusing much of our prescreening efforts on ensuring our patients will have adequate social support to recover in their homes. Additionally, we will be utilizing innovative multimedia and multi-modal educational techniques, including pictures, explanations by the surgeon and nursing staff, and written instructions to assist in preparing our patients for the surgery. By tackling these steps, we believe we will not only better equip our patients with the knowledge they need to care for themselves at home, but improve patient satisfaction by limiting hospital stay
  • Elizabeth Patton, MD, MPhi, MSc, received a CTSI grant for her project, Patient and Provider Perspectives on Contraceptive and Preconception Services Offered in Primary Care Addiction Medicine Clinic Settings. The purpose of the study is to explore the perspectives, attitudes and experiences of both addiction medicine clinical providers and patients in office based addiction treatment (OBAT) clinics regarding contraceptive knowledge, counseling and decision making for women with substance use disorder (SUD) before and after implementation of a pilot contraceptive counseling program within OBAT clinics. This study will support the integration of full spectrum contraceptive counseling and provision into OBAT clinics, enhancing patient access to these critically important services.
  • Susan White, MD, was named Director of the Physician Assistant (PA) program at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.
Ophthalmology – Stephen Christiansen
  • Successful launch of a new international outreach site for eye care and education in the Leribe district of Lesotho.
  • Multiple new federally-funded clinical studies launched by Ophthalmology faculty including studies of light and multi-functional OCT for external disease, glaucoma, and retina as well as a new study testing the effectiveness of low-dose atropine sulfate to reduce myopic progression in children.
Orthopaedic Surgery – Paul Tornetta III
  • Lou Gerstenfeld and Paul Tornetta obtained grant funding from the DOD PCORI program to study serologic markers of fracture healing (4-year trial).
  • Our clinical department has obtained funding to trial the use of text based PROMIS outcomes to develop recovery curves for common procedures and conditions with the goal of increasing our ability to improve patients’ outcomes while minimizing their clinic visits (2-year trial).
Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery – Gregory A. Grillone

Recruitment

  • Heather Osborn-Edwards, MD, has been recruited to the Division of Head and Neck Surgical Oncology and Skull Base Surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. She will join the full time faculty at BMC and BUSM in October 2019. Dr. Osborn completed her residency training in Otolaryngology at the University Toronto. She then went on to complete her fellowship in Head and Neck Surgical Oncology and Microvascular Reconstruction at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School.
  • Dan Faden, MD, has joined the Division of Head and Neck Surgical Oncology and Skull Base Surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery as a part time visiting surgeon. Dr. Faden is a BUSM alumnus who completed his residency training at the University of California San Francisco. He completed fellowship training in Head and Neck Surgical Oncology and in Skull Base Surgery, both at the University of Pittsburgh.

Honors and Accolades

  • Michael Platt, MD, was the recipient of the 2018 Excellence in Care Award from the Boston University Medical Group (BUMG) in recognition of his clinical excellence and for serving as an exceptional role model in applying the BUMG core values in his clinical work.
  • Anand Devaiah, MD, was elected President of the Society of University Otolaryngologists (SUO) for 2019. The SUO, made up of chairs, program directors and other academic faculty from around the country is the premier organization concerned with addressing issues and challenges in running academic otolaryngology departments in the U.S.
Pathology & Laboratory Medicine – Daniel Remick
  • The Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine has recruited 11 new faculty in the past year to expand our diagnostic, research and education missions and replace retiring faculty.
  • Krzysztof Blusztajn, PhD, Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine was awarded a 5-year grant from the National Institute of Aging titled Age-Associated Lipidomic Changes in Alzheimer’s Disease with a first year budget of $835,000.
Pediatrics – Bob Vinci
  • Over the last academic year BMC Pediatrics has implemented additional innovative programs in support of the 13,000 children in the Primary Care Practice, including a data driven Asthma program to reduce hospitalization and ER use, ADHD care support that leverages specialty consultation for children and families in their medical home.
  • BMC pediatrics has relaunched the Special Kids Special Care Program overseeing the care management of children with medical complexity in foster care, in partnership with Boston Medical Center Health Plan, MassHealth, and the Department of Children and Families.
  • The residency program is proud to have had multiple residents earn prestigious national awards recognizing their research and leadership over the last two years, including two residents winning the APA Young Investigator Award as well as four residents participating in the New Century Scholars program sponsored by the APA, ABP and APS and aimed at developing diverse future academic leaders in pediatrics
  • TEAM UP for Children (Transforming & Expanding Access to Mental Health Care in Urban Pediatrics) aims to promote positive child health and well-being through the delivery of evidence-based integrated behavioral health care in pediatric primary care clinics. In the first phase of the initiative in 2016, the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation partnered with BMC, BUSM, Codman Square Health Center, The Dimock Center and Lowell Community Health Center to launch TEAM UP.  Based on the success of first phase, the Smith Family Foundation and The Klarman Family Foundation now are joining in an effort to launch a second phase of the TEAM UP initiative which will spread TEAM UP to four new health centers in Eastern Massachusetts, and will support advocacy towards sustainability of integrated pediatric behavioral health care. A team from Pediatrics, in partnership with Child Psychiatry at BUSM and BMC received $10.25M over the course of Phase I and II for their work for their work to support TEAM UP implementation and evaluation.
Surgery – Jennifer Tseng
  • The Department of Surgery established the Boston Trauma Institute, a multidisciplinary research organization that will both engage in leading-edge research around injury prevention, trauma survivorship, and healthy communities, and investigate and promulgate best clinical practices around trauma and critical care.

Centers and Institutes

Alzheimer’s (and CTE) Center – Neil Kowall
  • Please see the report from the Department of Neurology.
Amyloidosis Center – Vaishali Sanchorawala
  • We are ecstatic to welcome and introduce Gareth Morgan, PhD. Dr. Morgan joined our basic science team in October 2018. His research focuses on translational research to understand the mechanisms of light chain misfolding and development of small molecules to prevent misfolding of the light chains as a possible therapeutic strategy for AL amyloidosis: the epitome of targeted personalized therapy for AL amyloidosis.
  • The Wildflower Foundation has been supporting our groundbreaking research for many years.  This year the Foundation has committed a $1 million multi-year pledge to the Amyloidosis Center. Gifts from this foundation are dependent on other donors joining to support the mission of the Center.  New or increased gifts will be matched by The Wildflower Foundation through the matching challenge.
  • A new staging system with the use of cardiac biomarkers was developed by the Amyloidosis Center which was profiled in the New England Journal of Medicine Watch as a practice informing paper.
  • Three new drugs are recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of hereditary TTR amyloidosis. We are very proud and pleased to be the participants in these clinical trials under the leadership of John Berk, MD, assistant director.
Genome Science Institute – Nelson Lau
  • The GSI completed a major transition in leadership with the new appointments of Nelson Lau, PhD, as Director, and Rachel Flynn, PhD, as Co-Director. Dr. Lau is a faculty member of the Department of Biochemistry studying the genomics of transposon regulation. Dr. Flynn is a faculty member of the Departments of Pharmacology, Medicine, and the BU Cancer Center, studying the genomics of telomere maintenance.  Drs. Lau and Flynn will take on the duties from the departures of Richard Myers, PhD, and Anita Destefano, PhD, who have served as GSI Director and Co-Director, respectively, since GSI’s inception in 2009. We wish Drs, Meyers and DeStefano all the best in their future endeavors at BU and beyond.
  • The GSI held the first new initiative of a workshop competition that awarded pilot experiment funds for Digital Droplet PCR (ddPCR) and Single-Cell RNA-sequencing (scRNAseq) pilot projects. The GSI awarded one ddPCR award to the Sagar/Henderon labs for developing a ddPCR assay for HIV. Four scRNAseq awards were also made to the Rifkin lab, the Cifuentes lab, the Fisher lab, and the Perissi lab to deploy scRNAseq technologies to their various cell population systems.
  • The GSI in collaboration with the Dept of Biochemistry has recruited Shawn Lyons, PhD, for an assistant professor position starting later this Fall in the Genetics and Genomics search. Dr. Lyons is coming to BUSM from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he has been studying stress-induced RNA regulation and translation regulation in cells subjected to environmental stress.
Military and Post-Deployment Health – Glenn Markenson
  • The Center for Military and Post Deployment Health organized a day-long symposium titled “A Call to Arms: Advancing Women’s Health Research in the Military” on September 13th, 2018 to recognize research accomplishments as well as address research gaps in the health outcomes of women in the military. The keynote speakers were Capt. Kathryn M. Beasley, USN (Ret) and Tracy Malone who shared data from their 2017 America’s Health Ranking report, “Health of Women Who Have Served,” which provided an overview of overall health outcomes of women in the military. BU investigators who have been studying health outcomes of military population presented their data and expertise in an array of topics including “Trauma outcomes in active duty women and veterans” – Ann McKee, MD, and Tracey Dechert, MD; “Medical health outcomes in active duty women and veterans” – Kimberly Sullivan, PhD; “Psychiatric health outcomes in active duty women and veterans” – Cassidy Gutner, PhD, and Amy Street, PhD; and “Reproductive health outcomes in active duty women and veterans” – Col. Glenn Markenson. A report, Military Women’s Health Symposium Explores Gaps in Research, on this event was posted on the BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine website.
  • Dr. Glenn Markenson along with Kathryn Mezwa and Lee Ann Adelsheim submitted a manuscript titled “Obstetric Outcomes in Active Duty Women: Emerging knowledge, considerations and gaps” to the Journal of Reproductive Medicine. The article is due to be published in a near future on the Part-II of the two-part special issue titled Reproductive Health Needs of the Military and Veterans. The summary of this manuscript will be presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Expo 2019 in Philadelphia. The link to the accepted abstract is Military Center’s Abstract – APHA.
Proteomics & Mass Spectrometry – Catherine Costello
  • The Center for Biomedical Mass Spectrometry installed a Thermo Lumos Tribrid Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer system that was obtained with an NIH High-End Shared Instrumentation Grant of $1.4M. The Center also received a 3-year R24 grant for $2.1M that will support the transition of the P41 Mass Spectrometry Research Resource for Biology and Medicine to other funding mechanisms. The BUSM MS Resource had been funded as a P41 Center for more than 20 years. In 2018, the NIH Institute of General Medicine introduced a new policy that limits P41 grants to 15 years.
  • Center Director Catherine Costello, PhD, was presented the first U.S. Human Proteome Organization Lifetime Achievement in Proteomics Award. In future years, the annual award will be renamed in her honor.
Pulmonary Center – Joseph Mizgerd
  • Faculty additions: New faculty in the Pulmonary Center included the recruitment of Assistant Professor PJ Maglione, MD, PhD, from Mount Sinai and Assistant Professor Giovanni Ligresti, PhD, from the Mayo Clinic, as well as new appointments to Assistant Professor for Joe Kaserman, MD, and Kostas Alysandratos, MD, PhD.
  • Published contributions: To highlight several among many, scientific advances included novel ways cells package materials into extracellular vesicles for intercellular communication in the lung (from Yang Jin in J Exp Med), how retinoic acid signaling prevents the airway smooth muscle dysfunctions of asthma (from Felicia Chen in JCI Insight), immune correates of the progression of premalignant lesions in the lung (from Avi Spira in Nature Communications), B cell contributions to interstitial lung disease in CVID patients (from PJ Maglione in JCI Insight), making atrial fibrillation a sepsis-defining organ dysfunction (from Allan Walkey in Annals of the ATS), and when and how e-cigarettes should be used to assist with smoking cessation (from George O’Connor in N Engl J Med).
Regenerative Medicine (CReM) – Darrell Kotton
  • This past year we had new papers and grants highlighting our Center’s role in leading national efforts focused on generating a variety of airway and alveolar lung cells from patient-specific stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells; iPSCs).
  • A newly funded U01 “Regenerative Medicine Innovation Project” (Darrell Kotton, Jason Rock, and Finn Hawkins, PI’s; see below) resulted from this work as well as two new R01s (1 for Kotton) and 1 for Finn Hawkins, and new J & J funding (Darrell Kotton, Chris Chen, and Andrew Emili, PI’s) to apply these model systems for lung cancer drug development. Additional grants from the NIH and industry related to iPSC models of COPD and thyroid disease models were awarded to Andrew Wilson.
  • New grants
    • U01148692 (Kotton, Rock, Hawkins, MPIs), 7/01/19-6/30/21, NHLBI, Generation of functional lung stem cells from human iPSCs. This grant focuses on extensive characterization of the phenotype, karyotypic stability, purity, expansion/scale-up potential, functional capacity, and in vivo teratoma potential of iPSC-derived lung resident stem cells of the airways and alveoli in preparation for developing a cellular clinical product.
    • 2R01 HL095993 (Kotton), 6/01/19-5/31/23, NHLBI, Derivation of lung epithelia from iPS cells for advanced disease modeling. This proposal focuses on developing iPSC-derived type 2 alveolar epithelial cells (AEC2s) for advanced disease modeling in order to reveal the mechanisms that are responsible for AEC2 dysfunction and to identify druggable pathways that can ameliorate downstream parenchymal lung disease.
    • Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. (Kotton and Emili, PIs), 1/1/2019-12/31/2019. A new human iPSC in vitro system to model the inception of lung adenocarcinoma. The overall goal of this work is to define the molecular changes that precede malignant transformation of in vitro derived alveolar cells.
    • R01HL139799 (Hawkins), 9/01/2018- 8/31/2023, NHLBI. iPSC-Derived Airway Basal Cells to Model Human Airway Development and Disease. The major goal of this project is to define the molecular mechanisms of airway basal cell specification and maturation in an iPSC model of development. The project focuses on understanding the differences between primary and iPSC-derived basal cells to improve the directed differentiation of iPSCs to basal cells for future developmental and disease modeling studies.
    • Grifols ISR/SRA (Wilson), 5/20/19-5/19/21 Grifols. Application of Isogenic CRISPR-Corrected Patient iPSCs to Determine Whether ZATT-Induced Gain of Function Toxicity Renders MZ or ZZ Lung Epithelium Susceptible to Cigarette Smoke Injury. The goal of this project is to determine whether patient iPSC-derived alveolar epithelial cells are intrinsically susceptible to smoke injury on the basis of Z-AAT driven gain-of-function toxicity.
    • Beam Therapeutics SRA (Wilson), 4/12/19-4/11/21 Beam Therapeutics. Base Editing in Patient-derived Pluripotent Stem Cells for Disease Modeling and Therapeutic Development. The goal of this project is to test base editing technology in AATD patient iPSCs and their differentiated progeny.
    • R01 DK117940 (Hollenberg/Wilson), 04/01/19 – 03/31/24 NIH/NIDDK. Thyroid Hormone Signaling in Human Hepatocytes. The goal of this project is to elucidate mechanisms of thyroid hormone signaling in human hepatic cells.
    • Alpha-1 Foundation Research Grant (Wilson), 07/01/18 – 06/30/19. Alpha-1 Foundation. Functional Characterization of Risk Modifier Gene MAN1B1 in Patient-derived Hepatocytes. This project studies the role of SNPs in the ERAD gene MAN1B1 in liver disease risk among patients with PiZZ AATD.
Slone Epidemiology Center – Julie Palmer
  • Michael Corwin, MD, received two NIH-NICHD R01 grants: $3.4 million over five years for Social Confounders for Health Outcomes Linked to Education and $3.1 million over five years for a randomized trial of safe sleep and breastfeeding mHealth interventions, titled Social Media and Risk Reduction Teaching Enhanced Reach.
Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute – Flora Sam
  • Three young investigators were granted K awards: Shinobu Matsuura, PhD “The bone marrow extracellular matrix: scaffold of hematopoiesis;” Shakun Karki, PhD (recently promoted to Assistant Professor) “FSP 27 regulation of vascular function in human obesity;” and Jessica Fetterman, PhD “Relations of mitochondrial genetic variation and function with atrial fibrillation.”
  • Eight pilot grants were awarded to WCVI investigators totaling $80,000.