Andrew A. Wilson, MD

Biography

I am a pulmonary and critical care clinician-scientist with a long-standing focus on regenerative medicine and stem cell biology. My goal is to advance understanding of and treatment for genetic causes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the most common genetic cause of COPD, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). To accomplish this goal, I have established an integrated clinical and research program here at BU and BMC that includes the following components: 1) The Alpha-1 Center which I direct and co-founded with Dr. Darrell Kotton has become a nationally recognized center of excellence for the care of AATD patients and their families; 2) Patient stem cell repositories: I have overseen the creation of and direct two large stem cell repositories, housed at the CReM. First, we house the world’s largest AATD patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) repository, comprised of iPSCs and reprogrammable blood samples from over 100 AATD patients linked to phenotypic data including imaging, pulmonary function, and liver biopsy results. Second, in collaboration with the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) and Vasan Ramachandran, the CReM now houses the FHS iPSC Repository that includes iPSCs and reprogrammable blood samples from >6500 highly phenotyped participants in the FHS; 3) Clinical-epidemological AATD Research: Under my direction as site PI, BU is one three sites in the country funded by the Alpha-1 Foundation to recruit 100 AATD subjects to undergo liver biopsy, detailed phenotyping, and 5 years of follow-up to define the prevalence of, risk factors for, and non-invasive biomarkers associated with AATD-associated liver disease; 4) Translational bench research: my lab in the CReM is focused on the application of patient-derived iPSCs to study AATD and COPD.

The 4 core areas of my research are: I) to confirm the clinical significance of the iPSC platform to model in vivo patient biology and demonstrate its potential for testing potential therapeutic agents; II) to better understand the genetic factors and mechanistic drivers that predispose subsets of AATD patients to develop clinical disease; III) to elucidate the mechanistic contribution of putative COPD susceptibility genes to lung disease pathogenesis; and IV) to develop gene or cell-based therapies for AATD.


Research interests include:
-Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
-COPD pathogenesis
-Gene therapy
-Pluripotent stem cells

Clinical interests include:
-Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency