Growing lung alveoli cells from patients' own stem cells
Derivation of lung epithelia from iPS cells for advanced disease modeling
Turning patients' blood or skin cells into lung alveolar cells to learn how genetic and other alveolar diseases work and help find better treatments.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Boston University Medical Campus NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11312706 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Researchers will take patient samples (like blood or skin) and reprogram them into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Those iPSCs will be guided in the lab to become alveolar type 2 (AT2) lung cells that act like the patient's own lung cells. The team will use a biobank of iPSCs from people with interstitial lung disease and ABCA3 or other AT2-related mutations and will also use gene editing to compare corrected and disease versions. The goal is to see shared cell responses, including inflammation signaling and changes in progenitor cell function, and to study how epithelial and mesenchymal cells communicate.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: People with interstitial lung disease or known ABCA3/AT2-related genetic mutations, or those willing to donate blood or skin samples to create patient-specific iPS cells, are ideal candidates.
Not a fit: Patients without alveolar or parenchymal lung disease, those with only airway conditions, or people unwilling or unable to provide tissue samples may not directly benefit.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could speed up development of personalized treatments and safer drugs by enabling testing in patient-matched lung cells.
How similar studies have performed: Other labs have generated iPSC-derived AT2 cells and used them to model lung disease, but translating these models into proven treatments remains at an early stage.
Where this research is happening
Boston, United States
- Boston University Medical Campus — Boston, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Kotton, Darrell N. — Boston University Medical Campus
- Study coordinator: Kotton, Darrell N.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.