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
Brimhall 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 3/5/2025Burgess CL, Ayers LJ, Minakin K, Alysandratos KD, Varelas X, Kotton DN. Protocol for the differentiation of human alveolar epithelial type I cells from pluripotent stem cell-derived type II-like cells. STAR Protoc. 2025 Mar 21; 6(1):103667. PMID: 40048418.
Published on 3/4/2025Yabaji SM, Lata S, Tseng AE, Araveti PB, Lo M, Gavrish I, O'Connell AK, Gertje HP, Belkina AC, Thurman CE, Kiyokawa H, Kotton D, Tan S, Endsley JJ, Bishai WR, Crossland N, Kobzik L, Kramnik I. Aberrant macrophage activation and maladaptive lung repair promote tuberculosis progression uniquely in the lung. bioRxiv. 2025 Mar 04. PMID: 40093068.
Published on 3/4/2025Evdokimova M, Feng S, Caobi A, Moreira FR, Jones D, Alysandratos KD, Tully ES, Kotton DN, Boyd DF, Banach BS, Kirchdoerfer RN, Saeed M, Baker SC. Coronavirus endoribonuclease antagonizes ZBP1-mediated necroptosis and delays multiple cell death pathways. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Mar 11; 122(10):e2419620122. PMID: 40035769.
Published on 2/25/2025Berical AC, Kiyokawa H, Beermann ML, Wallman D, Cherfane G, Dunphy V, Pan J, Tilston-Lunel A, Varelas X, Horani A, Brody SL, Kotton DN, Hawkins FJ. Reply to Huang et al.: Sowing Tailored Seeds: Gene-edited Basal Cells for Precision Regulation of Airway Phenotypes. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2025 Feb 25; 211(5):884. PMID: 39999444.
Published on 12/12/2024Eiken MK, Childs CJ, Brastrom LK, Frum T, Plaster EM, Ahmed DW, Spencer RC, Shachaf O, Pfeiffer S, Levine JE, Alysandratos KD, Kotton DN, Spence JR, Loebel C. Nascent matrix deposition supports alveolar organoid formation from aggregates in synthetic hydrogels. Stem Cell Reports. 2025 Jan 14; 20(1):102376. PMID: 39672155.
Published on 11/13/2024Kohn A, Herriges MJ, Basak P, Ma L, Thapa BR, Kotton DN, Hawkins FJ. Targeted pre-conditioning and cell transplantation in the murine lower respiratory tract. bioRxiv. 2024 Nov 13. PMID: 39605510.
Published on 11/8/2024Berical AC, Kiyokawa H, Beermann ML, Wallman D, Cherfane G, Dunphy V, Pan J, Tilston-Lunel A, Varelas X, Horani A, Brody SL, Kotton DN, Hawkins FJ. Airway Disease Modeling with Gene-edited Human Basal Cell Transplantation. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2024 Nov 08; 211(1):131-4. PMID: 39514838.
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.