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
Sen C, Langerman J, Alysandratos K, Alber AB, Cherry C, Castillo K, Siegel S, Chandran RR, Choi W, Rickabaugh T, Kotton DN, Plath K, Gomperts BN. Modeling cell-cell interactions to advance drug discovery in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. bioRxiv. 2026 Feb 02. PMID: 41676623.
Published on 2/1/2026Kohn A, Herriges MJ, Basak P, Ma L, Thapa BR, Kotton DN, Hawkins FJ. Targeted Preconditioning and Cell Transplantation in the Murine Lower Respiratory Tract. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2026 Feb 01; 74(2):155-166. PMID: 40540686.
Published on 1/31/2026Alber AB, Kwong G, Gupta VK, Dooley PE, Patel JR, Bawa PS, Minakin K, Jones D, Gopal D, Souza H, Yampolskaya M, Vilker E, Sen C, Conchola AS, Mehta P, Gomperts BN, Frum T, Spence JR, Alysandratos KD, Kotton DN. Bidirectional fibrogenic cross-talk revealed in a human iPSC-derived epithelial-mesenchymal co-culture model of pulmonary fibrosis. bioRxiv. 2026 Jan 31. PMID: 41659605.
Published on 10/14/2025Dobie AC, Win W, Kotton DN, Monaghan JR. Toward Human Lung Regeneration: Gaining Insights from the Axolotl Salamander Ambystoma mexicanum. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2025 Oct 14. PMID: 41086376.
Published on 10/6/2025Yabaji 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. Dysplastic lung repair fosters a tuberculosis-promoting microenvironment through maladaptive macrophage polarization. PLoS Pathog. 2025 Oct; 21(10):e1013563. PMID: 41052208.
Published on 9/30/2025Hoffman ET, Shah A, Barboza WR, Rodriguez LR, Dherwani R, Dooley PE, Minakin K, Tomer Y, Ayers LJ, Jones D, Murthy A, Bennett A, Lange AN, Bawa PS, Wang F, Babu A, Chavez K, Nakamoto RS, Cooper CH, Basil MC, Raredon MSB, Kotton DN, Alysandratos KD, Katzen J. Aberrant intermediate alveolar epithelial cells promote pathogenic activation of lung fibroblasts in preclinical fibrosis models. Nat Commun. 2025 Sep 30; 16(1):8710. PMID: 41027873.
Published on 8/30/2025Cooney 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.
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.