Darrell Nelson Kotton MD
Professor, Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep & Critical Care Medicine
Professor, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
670 Albany St
Sections
Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep & Critical Care Medicine
Centers
Center for Regenerative Medicine
Pulmonary Center
Framingham Heart Study
Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
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
Education
MD, Washington University School of Medicine
BA, University of Pennsylvania
Publications
Cooney AL, Lamer S, Yang P, Wegner DJ, White FV, Cole FS, Wohlford-Lenane C, Hennessey E, Bawa P, Kotton DN, Sinn PL, Wambach JA, McCray PB. Lentiviral-mediated gene complementation rescues pathogenic ABCA3 variants. bioRxiv. 2025 Aug 30. PMID: 40909633.
Published on 8/1/2025Lingappan K, Sundar IK, Prakash YS, Redente EF, Sin DD, Han MK, Lahm T, Krymskaya VP, Kotton DN, Kulkarni HS, Jain R, Königshoff M, Eghbali M, Anguera M, Arnold A, Silveyra P, DeMeo DL. Addressing Sex as a Biological Variable in Preclinical Models of Lung Disease: An Official American Thoracic Society Research Statement. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2025 Aug; 211(8):1346-1368. PMID: 40748009.
Published on 7/24/2025Undeutsch HJ, Posabella A, Kotton DN, Hollenberg AN. Protocol for directed differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells into thyroid follicular epithelial cells. STAR Protoc. 2025 Sep 19; 6(3):103979. PMID: 40714559.
Published on 7/1/2025Rodríguez LR, Alysandratos KD, Katzen J, Murthy A, Roque Barboza W, Tomer Y, Bui S, Acín-Pérez R, Petcherski A, Minakin K, Carson P, Iyer S, Chavez K, Cooper CH, Babu A, Weiner AI, Vaughan AE, Arany Z, Shirihai OS, Kotton DN, Beers MF. Impaired AMPK control of alveolar epithelial cell metabolism promotes pulmonary fibrosis. JCI Insight. 2025 Aug 08; 10(15). PMID: 40591409.
Published on 6/30/2025Miao Y, Pek NM, Tan C, Jiang C, Yu Z, Iwasawa K, Shi M, Kechele DO, Sundaram N, Pastrana-Gomez V, Sinner DI, Liu X, Lin KC, Na CL, Kishimoto K, Yang MC, Maharjan S, Tchieu J, Whitsett JA, Zhang YS, McCracken KW, Rottier RJ, Kotton DN, Helmrath MA, Wells JM, Takebe T, Zorn AM, Chen YW, Guo M, Gu M. Co-development of mesoderm and endoderm enables organotypic vascularization in lung and gut organoids. Cell. 2025 Aug 07; 188(16):4295-4313.e27. PMID: 40592324.
Published on 6/12/2025Caobi A, Su CM, Beusch CM, Kenney D, Darling TL, Feng S, Semaan M, Wacquiez A, Sanders NL, Tully ES, Chen DY, Evdokimova M, Ding Z, Jones D, Alysandratos KD, Mizgerd JP, Kirchdoerfer RN, Kotton DN, Douam F, Crossland NA, Boon ACM, Gordon DE, Baker SC, Saeed M. SARS-CoV-2 nsp15 enhances viral virulence by subverting host antiviral defenses. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Jun 17; 122(24):e2426528122. PMID: 40504150.
Published on 5/19/2025Brimhall KC, Kuhfeldt K, Kotton DN, Jones MR. Building on the Translational Science Benefits Model to include team science: a practical and theory-based approach to continuous quality improvement and impact evaluation for Clinical and Translational Science Award programs. Front Public Health. 2025; 13:1581205. PMID: 40458088.
Published on 5/1/2025Toro C, Eromosele OB, Flynn DB, Wilson AA, Kotton DN, Hughes TM, Moreira-Bouchard JD, Post WS, Bertoni AG, Benjamin EJ, Gopal DM, Fetterman JL. Organ Donation for Research Biobanking Among Historically Marginalized Racial and Ethnic Groups: A Systematic Review. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 May 01; 8(5):e2512133. PMID: 40423972.
Published on 3/31/2025Ma L, Thapa BR, Le Suer JA, Tilston-Lünel A, Herriges MJ, Wang F, Bawa PS, Varelas X, Hawkins FJ, Kotton DN. Author Correction: Life-long functional regeneration of in vivo airway epithelium by the engraftment of airway basal stem cells. Nat Protoc. 2025 Mar 31. PMID: 40164751.
Published on 3/21/2025Tang W, Huang J, Pegoraro AF, Zhang JH, Tang Y, Kotton DN, Bi D, Guo M. Topology and Nuclear Size Determine Cell Packing on Growing Lung Spheroids. Phys Rev X. 2025; 15(1). PMID: 40444063.
Media Mentions
Published on 11/7/2024
Researchers are one step closer to developing cell-based therapy for hypothyroidism
Published on 10/25/2024
Researchers will team up to develop pulmonary fibrosis stem cell models
Published on 10/17/2024
Global Biopharma Giant GSK and BU Announce Collaboration to Pioneer New Lung Disease Treatments
Published on 10/30/2023
Stem Cells Breathe New Life into Lungs
Published on 9/8/2023
Engineered stem cells could regenerate damaged tissue in PF
Published on 8/31/2023
BU Researchers See Future Where Lung Disease Is Treatable, and Damaged Lungs Are Regenerated
Published on 6/25/2023
Green and glowing mouse lung cells made to model PF in the lab
Published on 6/14/2023
New Model of Lung Mesenchymal Cells Created
Published on 6/14/2023
iPSC-Based Model System Helps Study Lung-Specific Mesenchyme
Published on 6/13/2023
Researchers create new model of lung mesenchymal cells
View full list of 26 media mentions.