Darrell Nelson Kotton, MD
Professor, Medicine

Biography
Darrell N. Kotton, MD is the founding director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine of Boston University and Boston Medical Center. He is a physician-scientist with attending physician duties in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Boston Medical Center and is the David C. Seldin Professor in the department of medicine and in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Boston University Chobanian and Avedesian School of Medicine. Dr. Kotton is an Allen Distinguished Investigator, a Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group advised program of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. He is also an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigators and the Association of American Physicians. He leads a basic research laboratory, funded continuously by the NIH since 2004, focused on lung regeneration and stem cell biology, and he serves on the NIH’s National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s Board of External Experts. He is the recipient of the American Thoracic Society’s “Recognition Award for Scientific Accomplishments” (2018), the AAMC inaugural national “Research Resources Sharing Award” (2017), the Alpha-1 Foundation’s “Researcher of the Year” (2013) and “Shillelagh” (2010) Awards, Boston University’s Graduate Medical Sciences Educator of the Year Award (2018), and the Robert Dawes Evans Senior Research Mentor Award from Boston University.
Expertise: Stem Cell Biology; iPS cells; Reprogramming; Gene Therapy; Lung Developmental Biology.
Other Positions
- Director, Center for Regenerative Medicine, Boston University
- Professor, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
- Investigator, Framingham Heart Study
- Member, Pulmonary Center, Boston University
- Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research, Boston University
- Member, Genome Science Institute, Boston University
- Graduate Faculty (Primary Mentor of Grad Students), Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences
Education
- Washington University School of Medicine, MD
- University of Pennsylvania, BA
Publications
- Published on 3/5/2025
Burgess CL, Ayers LJ, Minakin K, Alysandratos KD, Varelas X, Kotton DN. Protocol for the differentiation of human alveolar epithelial type I cells from pluripotent stem cell-derived type II-like cells. STAR Protoc. 2025 Mar 05; 6(1):103667. PMID: 40048418.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 3/4/2025
Evdokimova M, Feng S, Caobi A, Moreira FR, Jones D, Alysandratos KD, Tully ES, Kotton DN, Boyd DF, Banach BS, Kirchdoerfer RN, Saeed M, Baker SC. Coronavirus endoribonuclease antagonizes ZBP1-mediated necroptosis and delays multiple cell death pathways. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Mar 11; 122(10):e2419620122. PMID: 40035769.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/25/2025
Berical AC, Kiyokawa H, Beermann ML, Wallman D, Cherfane G, Dunphy V, Pan J, Tilston-Lunel A, Varelas X, Horani A, Brody SL, Kotton DN, Hawkins FJ. Reply to Huang et al.: Sowing Tailored Seeds: Gene-edited Basal Cells for Precision Regulation of Airway Phenotypes. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2025 Feb 25. PMID: 39999444.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 12/12/2024
Eiken MK, Childs CJ, Brastrom LK, Frum T, Plaster EM, Ahmed DW, Spencer RC, Shachaf O, Pfeiffer S, Levine JE, Alysandratos KD, Kotton DN, Spence JR, Loebel C. Nascent matrix deposition supports alveolar organoid formation from aggregates in synthetic hydrogels. Stem Cell Reports. 2025 Jan 14; 20(1):102376. PMID: 39672155.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/13/2024
Kohn A, Herriges MJ, Basak P, Ma L, Thapa BR, Kotton DN, Hawkins FJ. Targeted pre-conditioning and cell transplantation in the murine lower respiratory tract. bioRxiv. 2024 Nov 13. PMID: 39605510.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/8/2024
Berical AC, Kiyokawa H, Beermann ML, Wallman D, Cherfane G, Dunphy V, Pan J, Tilston-Lunel A, Varelas X, Horani A, Brody SL, Kotton DN, Hawkins FJ. Airway Disease Modeling with Gene-edited Human Basal Cell Transplantation. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2024 Nov 08; 211(1):131-4. PMID: 39514838.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/7/2024
Undeutsch HJ, Posabella A, Alber AB, Bawa PS, Villacorta-Martin C, Wang F, Ikonomou L, Kotton DN, Hollenberg AN. Derivation of transplantable human thyroid follicular epithelial cells from induced pluripotent stem cells. Stem Cell Reports. 2024 Dec 10; 19(12):1690-1705. PMID: 39515316.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/5/2024
Ma L, Thapa BR, Le Suer JA, Tilston-Lünel A, Herriges MJ, Wang F, Bawa PS, Varelas X, Hawkins FJ, Kotton DN. Life-long functional regeneration of in vivo airway epithelium by the engraftment of airway basal stem cells. Nat Protoc. 2025 Mar; 20(3):810-842. PMID: 39501108.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/15/2024
Tang X, Wei W, Sun Y, Weaver TE, Nakayasu ES, Clair G, Snowball JM, Na CL, Apsley KS, Martin EP, Kotton DN, Alysandratos KD, Huo J, Molkentin JD, Gower WA, Lin X, Whitsett JA. EMC3 regulates trafficking and pulmonary toxicity of the SFTPCI73T mutation associated with interstitial lung disease. J Clin Invest. 2024 Oct 15; 134(23). PMID: 39405113.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/17/2024
Gagnon KA, Huang J, Hix OT, Hui VW, Hinds A, Bullitt E, Eyckmans J, Kotton DN, Chen CS. Multicompartment duct platform to study epithelial-endothelial crosstalk associated with lung adenocarcinoma. APL Bioeng. 2024 Jun; 8(2):026126. PMID: 38911024.
Read at: PubMed
View 161 more publications: View full profile at BUMC