Valerie Gouon-Evans, PhD, PharmD

Associate Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Valerie Gouon-Evans, PharmD, PhD is Associate Professor of Medicine in the Section of Gastroenterology at the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, Director of the Program of Boston University Liver Biologists (BULB), and Associate Director of the Molecular & Translational Medicine (MTM) PhD Program of the Department of Medicine.

After completing her graduate studies in Paris, Dr. Gouon-Evans joined Dr. Pollard's Lab as a postdoctoral fellow where she studied mammary gland development and breast cancer. She then began her career as an Instructor of Gene and Cell Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York in the laboratory of Dr. Gordon Keller, where she pioneered protocols to efficiently generate hepatocyte-like cells from pluripotent stem cells. She quickly rose up the ranks and was promoted to Assistant Professor before arriving at Boston University. As a PharmD PhD lab leader for 16 years, Dr. Gouon-Evans has overseen the creation of a research program to advance understanding of liver development and establishing therapeutic strategies to alleviate liver disease using an induced pluripotent stem cell platform and mouse models. Recently, Dr. Gouon-Evans lab also pioneered an innovative technology to deliver regenerative factors to the liver to treat various liver diseases, by using mRNA complexed to lipid nanoparticles, which is a validated platform with the widely used mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines.

Publications

  • Published 6/12/2024

    Smith AR, Rizvi F, Everton E, Adeagbo A, Wu S, Tam Y, Muramatsu H, Pardi N, Weissman D, Gouon-Evans V. Transient growth factor expression via mRNA in lipid nanoparticles promotes hepatocyte cell therapy in mice. Nat Commun. 2024 Jun 12; 15(1):5010. PMID: 38866762.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 1/11/2024

    Smith AR, Rizvi F, Everton E, Adeagbo A, Wu S, Tam Y, Muramatsu H, Pardi N, Weissman D, Gouon-Evans V. Transient growth factor expression via mRNA in lipid nanoparticles promotes hepatocyte cell therapy to treat murine liver diseases. bioRxiv. 2024 Jan 11. PMID: 38260488.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 11/28/2023

    Rizvi F, Lee YR, Diaz-Aragon R, Bawa PS, So J, Florentino RM, Wu S, Sarjoo A, Truong E, Smith AR, Wang F, Everton E, Ostrowska A, Jung K, Tam Y, Muramatsu H, Pardi N, Weissman D, Soto-Gutierrez A, Shin D, Gouon-Evans V. VEGFA mRNA-LNP promotes biliary epithelial cell-to-hepatocyte conversion in acute and chronic liver diseases and reverses steatosis and fibrosis. Cell Stem Cell. 2023 Dec 07; 30(12):1640-1657.e8. PMID: 38029740.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/18/2023

    Rizvi F, Lee YR, Diaz-Aragon R, So J, Florentino RM, Smith AR, Everton E, Ostrowska A, Jung K, Tam Y, Muramatsu H, Pardi N, Weissman D, Soto-Gutierrez A, Shin D, Gouon-Evans V. VEGFA mRNA-LNP promotes biliary epithelial cell-to-hepatocyte conversion in acute and chronic liver diseases and reverses steatosis and fibrosis. bioRxiv. 2023 Apr 18. PMID: 37131823.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/18/2023

    Everton E, Del Rio-Moreno M, Villacorta-Martin C, Singh Bawa P, Lindstrom-Vautrin J, Muramatsu H, Rizvi F, Smith AR, Tam Y, Pardi N, Kineman R, Waxman DJ, Gouon-Evans V. Growth Hormone Accelerates Recovery From Acetaminophen-Induced Murine Liver Injury. bioRxiv. 2023 Apr 18. PMID: 37131727.

    Read at: PubMed

Other Positions

  • Member, Center for Regenerative Medicine
    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

  • University of Paris Vii, PhD
  • Université Paris 5 René Descartes, PharmD
  • University of Paris Vii, MS
  • Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris VI), BS