{"id":24492,"date":"2025-05-06T12:16:42","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T16:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/?p=24492"},"modified":"2025-05-06T12:16:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T16:16:54","slug":"pulmonologist-darrell-kotton-is-bus-innovator-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/2025\/05\/06\/pulmonologist-darrell-kotton-is-bus-innovator-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"DoM’s Pulmonologist Darrell Kotton Is BU\u2019s Innovator of the Year!"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY Jessica Colarossi<\/a><\/p>\n

Darrell Kotton and his team imagine a future where they can use a patient\u2019s own cells to fix lung damage caused by disease\u2014reprogramming cells in a laboratory dish and transplanting them back into the patient. The new lung cells would replicate, like regular cells do, replacing the damaged and diseased areas of the lung. By refining their work using sophisticated stem cell technology, Boston University pulmonologist Kotton and his team are inching closer and closer to realizing that vision.<\/p>\n

For this cutting-edge work, which could eventually help cure diseases like pulmonary fibrosis and cystic fibrosis, a disease caused by a genetic mutation, and reverse lung damage from conditions like emphysema, Kotton has been named BU\u2019s Innovator of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an unexpected honor,\u201d says\u00a0<\/span>Kotton<\/a>, the David C. Seldin Professor of Medicine at the BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. \u201cI\u2019m grateful to our team that helped innovate, and for an environment like BU where I have complete support from colleagues and leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

An attending physician and scientist, Kotton is a founding director of the\u00a0<\/span>Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM)<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>of Boston University and Boston Medical Center, BU\u2019s primary teaching hospital. The type of cellular engineering taking place in Kotton\u2019s lab is at the forefront of regenerative medicine and research.<\/p>\n

\u201cDarrell has identified gaps in diagnostics and treatments for pulmonary diseases and creative ways to use tissue stem cells to define how diseases develop, plus find targets for treatment,\u201d says\u00a0<\/span>Karen Antman<\/a>, dean of BU\u2019s medical school and provost of the Medical Campus. \u201cHe has been equally creative in assembling a team of investigators in this cutting-edge science, getting them funded and creating a space conducive to efficient, collaborative research. He has been innovative both in science and management\u2014a really effective combination.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the beginning of Kotton\u2019s career, reprogramming\u00a0<\/span>stem cells<\/a>\u2014undifferentiated cells of the human body that transform into specialized cells and have the ability to replicate indefinitely\u2014to cure disease was considered \u201cextremely esoteric,\u201d he says. But he and his team pushed forward anyway. \u201cWe loved the mission and the questions so much that even if nothing worked, it was still fascinating and enough for us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

At the time, Kotton and his team focused on basic science questions, studying how pluripotent stem cells, which are only found in embryos, grow and transform to become specialized cells in the body. Then, in 2006, Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka figured out how to revert adult skin or blood cells back into an embryonic stem cell\u2013like state, meaning that adult cells could be turned into any cell type in the body, including lung cells. Those engineered cells, called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, won Yamanaka the Nobel Prize in 2012, and opened the door to an entire new field of genetic engineering\u2014propelling Kotton\u2019s research from esoteric to mainstream, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat discovery meant that the same recipes and protocols we had been developing were suddenly applicable to the new engineered iPS cells, and we were extremely well positioned to apply a lot of our hard work and new knowledge immediately to this new type of cell,\u201d Kotton says. Now, instead of making lung cells out of embryonic stem cells, they could create them from a person of any age with their own cells, making it more likely that new implanted cells would be accepted.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many of the world\u2019s leading scientific innovators, Dr. Kotton is driven by an altruistic ambition to discover cures for currently incurable diseases,\u201d says Thomas Bifano<\/a>, BU vice president and associate provost ad interim for research, and\u00a0a previous Innovator of the Year<\/a>\u00a0winner. \u201cHis pioneering work using induced pluripotent stem cells as building blocks to regenerate lung tissue has significantly advanced research into debilitating conditions such as cystic fibrosis. Beyond his groundbreaking contributions to lung regeneration, Dr. Kotton is widely recognized for his unwavering commitment to open-source biology\u2014freely sharing ideas, databases, cell lines, protocols, and expertise to accelerate scientific innovation and discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023,\u00a0<\/span>two studies published<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>in\u00a0<\/span>Cell Stem Cell<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>detailed how Kotton and his colleagues engineered lung stem cells and successfully transplanted them into injured lungs of mice. Two lines of cells targeted two different parts of the lung: the airways, including the trachea and bronchial tubes, and the alveoli, the delicate air sacs that deliver oxygen to the bloodstream. The findings could eventually lead to new ways for treating severe cases of COVID-19, emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, and cystic fibrosis.<\/p>\n

The Innovator of the Year award was\u00a0<\/span>announced at a special event<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>that highlighted how BU faculty work with industry experts to address challenges associated with developing treatments for lung disease. For example, Kotton\u2019s team\u00a0<\/span>recently started collaborating<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>with United Kingdom\u2013based biopharma giant GSK to use CReM-developed lung cells to better understand pulmonary fibrosis and to identify new drug targets to halt or slow the progression of the currently incurable disease. Kotton is CReM\u2019s second Innovator of the Year winner: codirector\u00a0<\/span>Gustavo Mostoslavsky<\/a>, a BU medical school professor of gastroenterology earned the title in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work by Dr. Kotton and his colleagues meets unmet medical needs by harnessing innovative technology to develop cellular therapies for human diseases,\u201d says\u00a0<\/span>Anthony Hollenberg<\/a>, president of BMC and a BU professor of medicine. \u201cThe advances of CReM will allow for novel therapies previously not obtainable. This exemplifies why Dr. Kotton is an ideal choice of Innovator of the Year and why his leadership allows BMC and BU to remain at the leading edge of scientific discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Original story<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY Jessica Colarossi Darrell Kotton and his team imagine a future where they can use a patient\u2019s own cells to fix lung damage caused by disease\u2014reprogramming cells in a laboratory dish and transplanting them back into the patient. The new lung cells would replicate, like regular cells do, replacing the damaged and diseased areas of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20392,"featured_media":24493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3154,3134,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20392"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24492"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24495,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24492\/revisions\/24495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}