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Claire Burgess will officially graduate in May 2023, leaving behind a tremendous research impact on the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.<\/p>\n
Burgess, a PhD student in the Graduate Medical Sciences Program in Molecular & Translational Medicine (MTM)<\/a><\/span>, is a 2023 winner of the GMS Outstanding Student Achievement Award in the PhD Research category.<\/p>\n Burgess matriculated into the PhD umbrella Program in Biomedical Sciences in 2017, following her graduation from Sewanee: the University of the South that year. She currently works in the lab of Darrell Kotton, MD<\/a><\/span>, the director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM)<\/a><\/span> and David C. Seldin Professor of Medicine at Chobanian & Avedisian SOM.<\/p>\n During her time in the Kotton Lab, Burgess has discovered two different methods for generating human alveolar epithelial type I cells (AT1s) from pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These cells, which form the majority of the gas exchange surface of the lung, had no previous human in vitro <\/em>culture model, and they are difficult to access from primary tissue.<\/p>\n These difficulties limited scientific understanding of lung epithelial diseases like acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).<\/p>\n \u201cAT1s have the largest surface area and are one of the most topologically complex cells, as well as one of the thinnest,\u201d Burgess said. \u201cThey\u2019re difficult to isolate because they get shredded in the process. There weren\u2019t any good culture model systems for these cells, and so we didn\u2019t know a lot about them.\u201d<\/p>\n Burgess\u2019 research has contributed to the Kotton Lab\u2019s discovery of how to grow iAT1s from different genetic backgrounds in 3D organoids, as well as in 2D air-liquid interface cultures. The lab has completed a provisional patent application for these lentiviral and media-based methods.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing able to generate [iAT1s] from iPSCs, not only have we managed to make a model for these cells, so that we can understand how they\u2019re affected by smoke exposure or viral infections [\u2026], but we\u2019ve also been able to understand a little bit more about their development and the signals that are involved in differentiation, and how that might be perturbed in different disease states like IPF and COPD,\u201d Burgess said.<\/p>\n Burgess and the Kotton Lab have also demonstrated the role of nuclear YAP\/TAZ signaling in the differentiation of human type I cells. She has generated a reporter iPSC line to track and purify these iAT1s, which she has shared with academic and industry-based labs across the country, like the Chobanian & Avedisan SOM Varelas Lab<\/a><\/span> and labs at the BU Charles River Campus, Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Novartis.<\/p>\n In 2021, Burgess was awarded an F31 National Research Service Award through the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health for her research. The project, “Generation of human alveolar epithelial type I cells from pluripotent stem cells<\/a><\/span>,”\u00a0<\/a>is currently posted on bioRxiv. Burgess successfully defended her dissertation on February 9, 2023.<\/p>\n For Burgess, working alongside Kotton, principal investigators and post-doctoral fellows in the CReM has given her valuable insight into how her research could be applied in a clinical setting and in fighting disease in the future. The past five years have also exposed Burgess to an area of research \u201cthat\u2019s completely different from [her] experiences in undergrad and any prior research that [she had] done.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a really wonderful, collaborative environment with a lot of different experts in a lot of different areas,\u201d Burgess said of the CReM. \u201cI think choosing a lab based on the people is really important, and choosing a PI \u00a0and an environment that\u2019s going to be able to help you grow is more important than the specific research that you\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Burgess credits Kotton, her direct PI, as a \u201cwonderful mentor\u201d who \u201cputs a lot of thought into each person and how to best help them specifically grow and learn.\u201d She also spoke highly of her work with Jay Mizgerd, ScD<\/a><\/span>, director of the Pulmonary Center<\/a><\/span>, and David Center, MD<\/a><\/span>, Associate Provost of Translational Research and director of the Clinical and Translational Research Institute, as well as many of the PIs and post-doctoral fellows at the CReM.<\/p>\n Following graduation in May, Burgess will remain at BU in the Kotton Lab to complete paper revisions. She plans to apply for positions within the biotechnology industry. Of her Outstanding Student Achievement Award, Burgess said that she is \u201cvery grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this research for five years, so the successes come spaced out with as many if not more failures,\u201d Burgess said. \u201cWhen you condense all the successes into a single paragraph [for the award application], it suddenly seems very impressive. It\u2019s funny to be able to look at that paragraph and think, \u2018Wow, I really have done a lot.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Claire Burgess ’23 Molecular & Translational Medicine Program in Biomedical Sciences Claire Burgess will officially graduate in May 2023, leaving behind a tremendous research impact on the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. Burgess, a PhD student in the Graduate Medical Sciences Program in Molecular & Translational Medicine (MTM), is a 2023 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20706,"featured_media":93049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[795,54,7074,1534],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20706"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93047"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93081,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93047\/revisions\/93081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}