{"id":3321,"date":"2020-01-23T20:22:22","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T01:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/?page_id=3321"},"modified":"2026-06-02T10:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T14:14:15","slug":"connecting-tissues-and-investigatorsfibrosis-inpathology","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/the-arcs\/recent-past-arc-programs-evolved-into-university-and-or-agency-funded-programs\/connecting-tissues-and-investigatorsfibrosis-inpathology\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting Tissues and Investigators: Fibrosis in Pathology (Fibrosis ARC Program)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Co-Directors<\/h2>\n

Xaralabos (Bob) Varelas, PhD (BIOCHEM) and Maria Trojanowska, PhD (MED); thru 2024,<\/em> Irving Bigio, PhD (ENG)<\/p>\n

Synopsis<\/h3>\n

The Fibrosis ARC-Program started as an ARC in 2018 and has brought together a community of investigators that spans the two campus of Boston University to study and discuss research related to tissue fibrosis.<\/p>\n

Aberrant fibrogenesis or fibrosis is a common response to chronic tissue injury and is a process known to <\/o:p>contribute to a wide-range of diseases with high mortality, including interstitial lung diseases, liver <\/o:p>cirrhosis, kidney diseases, heart. Thus, insight into the causes and consequences of fibrosis and methods to <\/o:p>detect fibrosis at early stages is critically important. The fibrosis ARC program has offered a venue for <\/o:p>seminars and discussions that have focused on fibrosis related studies, with the goal to drive collaborative <\/o:p>studies focused on improving diagnostics and therapies for fibrosis. Research from ARC-initiated studies has <\/o:p>been very successful, leading to numerous publications and grants. Notable discoveries include identification <\/o:p>of important cell populations that associate with fibrosis across several organs and <\/o:p>tissues(e.g.,lung,skin,kidney and adipose tissue) along with optimized new imaging techniques for diagnosing <\/o:p>scleroderma or kidney fibrosis associated with transplants.The program has facilitated cross campus <\/o:p>collaborations and bridged the use of new methods and technologies to translational clinical studies. Group <\/o:p>meetings and seminars have included researchers internal and external to Boston University, which has helped <\/o:p>build strong research teams that will continue to work together.Our goal is to keep the fibrosis research <\/o:p>community together and continue making research impact in this important field of study.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Participating Members (as of 2025)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Name<\/strong><\/td>\nTitle<\/strong><\/td>\nInstitution<\/strong><\/td>\nDepartment<\/strong><\/td>\nArea of Expertise for this Project<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
No members receiving funding:<\/u><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bob Varelas (co-director)<\/td>\nProfessor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nBiochemCellBio<\/td>\nPulmonary and cancer-related fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Maria Trojanowska<\/p>\n

(co-director)<\/td>\n

Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine<\/td>\nReticular stroma fibrosis, genetic animal models, scleroderma<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Darren Roblyer<\/td>\nAssistant Professor<\/td>\nCollege of Engineering (Charles River campus)<\/td>\nBiomedical Eng<\/td>\nEndogenous imaging of collagen<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vipul Chitalia<\/td>\nAssociate Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine<\/td>\nRenal fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Weining Lu<\/td>\nAssociate Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine\/Renal Section<\/td>\nKidney development, renal fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Andreea Bujor<\/td>\nAssistant Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine\/Rheumatology<\/td>\nScleroderma<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mikel Garcia-Marcos<\/td>\nProfessor<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

School of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nBiochemCellBio<\/td>\nGPCR signaling in fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kumar Sudhir<\/td>\nAssistant Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine\/Nephrology<\/td>\nKidney fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jay Mizgerd<\/td>\nProfessor<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

School of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine<\/td>\nPulmonary infections<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Joshua Campbell<\/td>\nAssociate Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine\/Computational medicine<\/td>\nBioinformatics<\/td>\n <\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Matthew Layne<\/td>\nAssociate Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nBiochemCellBio<\/td>\nMechano-transduction, ECM<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Stephen Farmer<\/td>\nProfessor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nBiochemCellBio<\/td>\nObesity induced Fibrosis, Adipose tissue<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Giovanni Ligresti<\/td>\nAssociate Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine\/Rheumatology<\/td>\nPulmonary Fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hadi Nia<\/td>\nAssistant Professor<\/td>\nCollege of Engineering<\/p>\n

(Charles River campus)<\/td>\n

Biomedical Eng<\/td>\nMechano-transduction & mechanical forces in ECM. Pulmonary Fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jean Francis<\/td>\nAssociate Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine\/Renal<\/td>\nKidney transplant fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vijay Kolachalama<\/td>\nAssociate Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nComputational Biology<\/td>\nMachine learning<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Alik Farber<\/td>\nProfessor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine\/Radiology<\/td>\nVascular Surgery<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Marcin Trojanowski<\/td>\nAssistant Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine\/Rheumatology<\/td>\nSystemic Sclerosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Stephen Whelan<\/td>\nProteomics Specialist<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

College of Arts & Sciences (Charles River Campus)<\/td>\nChemistry<\/td>\nMass spectrometry\/Metabolomics<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Elise Morgan<\/td>\nProfessor<\/td>\nCollege of Engineering<\/p>\n

(Charles River campus)<\/td>\n

Mechanical Engineering<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

ECM, bone remodeling, fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Katya Ravid<\/td>\nProfessor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine\/CVI<\/td>\nBone marrow fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Erzsebet Bartolak-Suki<\/td>\nResearch Assistant Professor<\/td>\nCollege of Engineering<\/p>\n

(Charles River campus)<\/td>\n

Biomedical Eng<\/td>\nMechanotransduction<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bela Suki<\/td>\nProfessor<\/td>\nCollege of Engineering<\/p>\n

(Charles River campus)<\/td>\n

Biomedical Eng<\/td>\nMechano-transduction & mechanical forces in ECM<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Maria Kukuruzinska<\/td>\nProfessor<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (Med Campus)<\/td>\nTranslational Dental Medicine<\/td>\nCancer, autoimmunity, tissue repair<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Manish Bais<\/td>\nAssistant Professor<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (Med Campus)<\/td>\nTranslational Dental Medicine<\/td>\nOral cancer fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
David Salant<\/td>\nProfessor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine\/Renal Section<\/td>\nRenal Fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Stefano Monti<\/td>\nAssociate Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine\/Computational medicine<\/td>\nBioinformatics<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Markus Bosmann<\/td>\nAssociate Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMedicine\/Pulmonary<\/td>\nPulmonary Fibrosis<\/td>\n <\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jeffrey Browning<\/td>\nResearch Professor<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

School of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nMicrobiology<\/td>\nScleroderma and autoimmnunity<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jeron Eyckmans<\/td>\nResearch Assistant Professor<\/td>\nCollege of Engineering<\/p>\n

(Charles River campus)<\/td>\n

Biomedical Eng<\/td>\nMechanical and biochemical signaling<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Katherine Yanhang Zhang<\/td>\nProfessor<\/td>\nCollege of Engineering<\/p>\n

(Charles River campus)<\/td>\n

Biomedical Eng<\/td>\nMechanical signaling, Collagen regulation<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Daniel Roh<\/td>\nAssistant Professor<\/td>\nSchool of Medicine (Med campus)<\/td>\nSurgery<\/td>\nPlastic Surgery, Wound healing, fibrosis<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Co-Directors Xaralabos (Bob) Varelas, PhD (BIOCHEM) and Maria Trojanowska, PhD (MED); thru 2024, Irving Bigio, PhD (ENG) Synopsis The Fibrosis ARC-Program started as an ARC in 2018 and has brought together a community of investigators that spans the two campus of Boston University to study and discuss research related to tissue fibrosis. Aberrant fibrogenesis or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14042,"featured_media":0,"parent":4379,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3321"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6651,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3321\/revisions\/6651"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/evanscenteribr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}