{"id":2919,"date":"2026-04-29T16:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/kottonlab\/?page_id=2919"},"modified":"2026-05-13T13:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:06:47","slug":"our-team","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/kottonlab\/our-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Faculty<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n

<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/td>\nDarrell Kotton, MD<\/b><\/p>\n

David C. Seldin Professor of Medicine
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director, Center for Regenerative Medicine<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Principal Investigator (PI)<\/p>\n

View CV 2022<\/a><\/p>\n

short biography: about the PI<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n

Hirofumi Kiyokawa, MD, PhD<\/strong><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Boston University<\/p>\n

Education:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>MD, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan<\/p>\n

PhD, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan<\/p>\n

Research Interests:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Molecular mechanisms regulating cellular identity, plasticity and carcinogenesis of airway basal stem cells<\/span><\/p>\n

hirofumi at bu dot edu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\"\"<\/td>\nAndrea Alber, PhD<\/strong><\/b><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Assistant Professor of Medicine<\/span><\/p>\n

Education:\u00a0<\/strong>PhD, Ecole polytechnique f\u00e9d\u00e9rale de Lausanne, Switzerland<\/p>\n

Research Interests:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>In vitro differentiation of iPSCs towards the lung mesenchymal lineage to study lung mesenchyme development and disease<\/p>\n

aalber at bu dot edu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Staff<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n

<\/strong><\/b><\/b><\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/strong><\/td>\nLeighann Sullivan, Ph.D.<\/b>
\nLaboratory ManagerEducation: <\/b><\/strong>Cornell University, B.S. in BiologyRice University, Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Cell Biologyls36 at bu dot edu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\nDiya Gopal<\/span><\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

Education:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Northeastern University B.S. Cell and Molecular Biology\/\u00a0<\/span>minor in Digital Communications<\/span><\/p>\n

dgopal1 at bu dot edu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Post-Doctoral Fellows<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n

<\/strong><\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n

Alexander M. Holtz, M.D., Ph.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Post-Doctoral Fellow<\/p>\n

Education:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

M.D., University of Michigan<\/p>\n

Ph.D., University of Michigan\u200b<\/p>\n

Research interests:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Generating hiPSC-derived lung-specific<\/p>\n

endothelial cells for disease modeling and cell-based therapies.<\/p>\n

aholtz at bu dot edu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\"\"<\/td>\nAdrien Tourneur, PhD<\/strong><\/p>\n

Post-Doctoral Fellow<\/p>\n

Education:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>PhD in pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences at Universit\u00e9 Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)<\/p>\n

Research Interests:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Thyroid, parathyroid, and endocrine lineage development<\/span><\/p>\n

tourneur at bu dot edu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\"\"<\/td>\n\n
Kathleen Mills, PhD<\/strong><\/div>\n
Post-Doctoral Fellow<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Education:\u00a0<\/strong>University of Chicago, BS in Biological Sciences with a specialization in Immunology<\/div>\n
Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences,<\/div>\n
PhD in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Research interests:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Using iPSC models to study telomere-related gene variants in pulmonary fibrosis<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
kmills11 at bu dot edu<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Graduate Students<\/h2>\n<\/td>\n

\n
<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\nErin Hennessey<\/strong><\/p>\n

PhD student, Program in Biomedical Sciences, Program in Genetics Counseling<\/p>\n

Education:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>College of William & Mary \u2013 BS in Biology and Chemistry<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Research interests:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Pathogenesis of and treatments for ABCA3-associated childhood interstitial lung disease (chILD)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
erinhenn at bu dot edu<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\n\n
Kevin H Chen<\/strong><\/div>\n

MD\/PhD Student, Program in Molecular and Translational Medicine\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Educat<\/strong>ion:<\/strong>\u00a0Columbia University \u2013 BA in Biochemistry<\/p>\n

Research Interests<\/strong>: Developing cell therapies for chronic allograft dysfunction<\/span><\/p>\n

kchenh at bu dot edu\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\"\"<\/td>\n\n
\n
Lauren Ayers<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
PhD student, Graduate Program in Genetics and Genomics<\/div>\n

Educat<\/strong>ion:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Massachusetts Institute of Technology \u2013 B.S. in Nuclear Science and Engineering<\/p>\n

Research Interests<\/strong>: Role of Chromatin In Regulating Lung Cell Fates<\/span><\/p>\n

ljayers at bu dot edu\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\n\n
\n

Connor Malloy<\/strong><\/p>\n

PhD Student, Program in Biomedical Sciences, Graduate Program in Genetics & Genomics<\/p>\n

Education:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Northeastern University, BS in Cell and Molecular Biology, minor in Business Administration<\/p>\n

Research Interests:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Molecular mechanisms of and cell\/gene therapy approaches for ABCA3-associated childhood interstitial lung disease (chILD)<\/p>\n

crmalloy at bu dot edu<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/td>\nEitan Viker<\/strong><\/p>\n

PhD student, Program in\u00a0<\/span>Bioinformatics<\/span><\/p>\n

Education:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>BA in Computer Science and MS in Computer Science from Dartmouth College<\/p>\n

Research Interests:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cell fates and states, attractor basins, lung epithelial injuries, single cell analytical methods,<\/div>\n
transdifferentiation, and machine learning interpretability<\/div>\n

evilker at bu dot edu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

See graduates and alumni who trained in our lab<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Faculty \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Darrell Kotton, MD David C. Seldin Professor of Medicine Director, Center for Regenerative Medicine Principal Investigator (PI) View CV 2022 short biography: about the PI   Hirofumi Kiyokawa, MD, PhD Assistant Professor of Medicine, Boston University Education:\u00a0MD, Faculty of Medicine, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21057,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/profiles.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/kottonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/kottonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/kottonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/kottonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21057"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/kottonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2919"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/kottonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2949,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/kottonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2919\/revisions\/2949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/kottonlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}