Andrew A. Wilson, MD
Professor
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Medicine
Pulmonary, Allergy, Sleep & Critical Care Medicine

MD, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School
BA, Williams College



I am a pulmonary and critical care clinician-scientist with a long-standing focus on regenerative medicine and stem cell biology. My goal is to advance understanding of and treatment for genetic causes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the most common genetic cause of COPD, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). To accomplish this goal, I have established an integrated clinical and research program here at BU and BMC that includes the following components: 1) The Alpha-1 Center which I direct and co-founded with Dr. Darrell Kotton has become a nationally recognized center of excellence for the care of AATD patients and their families; 2) Patient stem cell repositories: I have overseen the creation of and direct two large stem cell repositories, housed at the CReM. First, we house the world’s largest AATD patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) repository, comprised of iPSCs and reprogrammable blood samples from over 100 AATD patients linked to phenotypic data including imaging, pulmonary function, and liver biopsy results. Second, in collaboration with the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) and Vasan Ramachandran, the CReM now houses the FHS iPSC Repository that includes iPSCs and reprogrammable blood samples from >6500 highly phenotyped participants in the FHS; 3) Clinical-epidemological AATD Research: Under my direction as site PI, BU is one three sites in the country funded by the Alpha-1 Foundation to recruit 100 AATD subjects to undergo liver biopsy, detailed phenotyping, and 5 years of follow-up to define the prevalence of, risk factors for, and non-invasive biomarkers associated with AATD-associated liver disease; 4) Translational bench research: my lab in the CReM is focused on the application of patient-derived iPSCs to study AATD and COPD.

The 4 core areas of my research are: I) to confirm the clinical significance of the iPSC platform to model in vivo patient biology and demonstrate its potential for testing potential therapeutic agents; II) to better understand the genetic factors and mechanistic drivers that predispose subsets of AATD patients to develop clinical disease; III) to elucidate the mechanistic contribution of putative COPD susceptibility genes to lung disease pathogenesis; and IV) to develop gene or cell-based therapies for AATD.


Research interests include:
-Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
-COPD pathogenesis
-Gene therapy
-Pluripotent stem cells

Clinical interests include:
-Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency

Investigator
Framingham Heart Study


Member
Boston University
Pulmonary Center


Member
Boston University
Center for Regenerative Medicine


Member
Boston University
Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research


Graduate Faculty (Primary Mentor of Grad Students)
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences




STaRS at BU - Summer Training as Research Scholars at Boston University
05/01/2024 - 04/30/2029 (Multi-PI)
PI: Andrew A. Wilson, MD
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
2R25HL118693-11

Gain-of-function toxicity in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficient type 2 alveolar epithelial cells
01/01/2024 - 12/31/2027 (Key Person / Mentor)
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
1F30HL170745-01

Mechanistic studies of the genetic contribution of desmoplakin to pulmonary fibrosis in alveolar type 2 cells
08/15/2023 - 07/31/2027 (PI)
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
5R01HL166407-02

Gene regulatory networks in early lung epithelial cell fate decisions
02/01/2023 - 01/31/2027 (Subcontract PI)
University of Buffalo NIH NHLBI
5R01HL158965-02

Thyroid Hormone Signaling in Human Hepatocytes
06/30/2023 - 01/31/2025 (Multi-PI)
PI: Andrew A. Wilson, MD
NIH/National Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases
7R01DK117940-05

Alpha-1 Foundation Therapeutic Development Network
01/12/2024 - 01/11/2025 (PI)
Alpha-1 Foundation


Clinical Resource Center Registry to Alpha-1 Foundation transfer award
04/15/2020 - 12/31/2024 (PI)
Alpha-1 Foundation


Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Disease Cohort: Longitudinal Biomarker Study of Disease
07/01/2022 - 06/30/2024 (Subcontract PI)
Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York NIH NHLBI
5UH3HL152323-04

Genetic study of liver disease susceptibility in alpha-1-antittrypsin deficiency (AATD)
09/01/2021 - 08/31/2023 (Subcontract PI)
St. Louis University Dicerna Pharma, Inc.


Pluripotent stem cell-based modeling of cigarette smoke injury
04/01/2020 - 05/31/2023 (Key Person / Mentor)
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
5F30HL147426-04

Showing 10 of 32 results. Show All Results

Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency Adult Clinical and Genetic Linkage Study
09/01/2017 - 07/23/2024 (PI)
St. Louis University

ALPHA-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency Adult Clinical
09/01/2017 - 07/23/2024 (PI)
Alpha-1 Foundation


Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs
2024 iPSC Gene Editing Core 1P01HL170952-01-7286
2024 Elucidating the contribution of lung epithelial gain of function toxicity to AATD disease pathogenesis 1P01HL170952-01-7288
2024 Mechanistic studies of the genetic contribution of desmoplakin to pulmonary fibrosis in alveolar type 2 cells 5R01HL166407-02
2024 STaRS at BU - Summer Training as Research Scholars at Boston University 2R25HL118693-11
2023 Mechanistic studies of the genetic contribution of desmoplakin to pulmonary fibrosis in alveolar type 2 cells 1R01HL166407-01A1
2022 Thyroid Hormone Signaling in Human Hepatocytes 7R01DK117940-05
2022 Thyroid Hormone Signaling in Human Hepatocytes 5R01DK117940-04
2021 Thyroid Hormone Signaling in Human Hepatocytes 5R01DK117940-03
2020 Thyroid Hormone Signaling in Human Hepatocytes 5R01DK117940-02
2020 A National iPS Cell Network with Deep Phenotyping for Translational Research 5U01TR001810-05 12
Showing 10 of 26 results. Show All Results

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

iCite Analysis       Copy PMIDs To Clipboard

  1. Werder RB, Zhou X, Cho MH, Wilson AA. Breathing new life into the study of COPD with genes identified from genome-wide association studies. Eur Respir Rev. 2024 Apr 30; 33(172).View Related Profiles. PMID: 38811034; PMCID: PMC11134200; DOI: 10.1183/16000617.0019-2024;
     
  2. Guo F, Zhang L, Yu Y, Gong L, Tao S, Werder RB, Mishra S, Zhou Y, Anamika WJ, Lao T, Inuzuka H, Zhang Y, Pham B, Liu T, Tufenkjian TS, Richmond BW, Wei W, Mou H, Wilson AA, Hu M, Chen W, Zhou X. Identification of a distal enhancer regulating hedgehog interacting protein gene in human lung epithelial cells. EBioMedicine. 2024 Mar; 101:105026.View Related Profiles. PMID: 38417378; PMCID: PMC10944180; DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105026;
     
  3. Abo KM, Merritt C, Basil MC, Lin SM, Cantu E, Morley MP, Bawa P, Gallagher M, Byers DE, Morrisey EE, Wilson AA. Pulmonary Cellular Toxicity in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. Chest. 2024 Sep; 166(3):472-479. PMID: 38360172
     
  4. Werder RB, Berthiaume KA, Merritt C, Gallagher M, Villacorta-Martin C, Wang F, Bawa P, Malik V, Lyons SM, Basil MC, Morrisey EE, Kotton DN, Zhou X, Cho MH, Wilson AA. The COPD GWAS gene ADGRG6 instructs function and injury response in human iPSC-derived type II alveolar epithelial cells. Am J Hum Genet. 2023 Oct 05; 110(10):1735-1749.View Related Profiles. PMID: 37734371; PMCID: PMC10577075; DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.08.017;
     
  5. Kaserman JE, Werder RB, Wang F, Matte T, Higgins MI, Dodge M, Lindstrom-Vautrin J, Bawa P, Hinds A, Bullitt E, Caballero IS, Shi X, Gerszten RE, Brunetti-Pierri N, Liesa M, Villacorta-Martin C, Hollenberg AN, Kotton DN, Wilson AA. Human iPSC-hepatocyte modeling of alpha-1 antitrypsin heterozygosity reveals metabolic dysregulation and cellular heterogeneity. Cell Rep. 2022 Dec 06; 41(10):111775.View Related Profiles. PMID: 36476855; PMCID: PMC9780780; DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111775;
     
  6. Scoon WA, Mancio-Silva L, Suder EL, Villacorta-Martin C, Lindstrom-Vautrin J, Bernbaum JG, Mazur S, Johnson RF, Olejnik J, Flores EY, Mithal A, Wang F, Hume AJ, Kaserman JE, March-Riera S, Wilson AA, Bhatia SN, Mühlberger E, Mostoslavsky G. Ebola virus infection induces a delayed type I IFN response in bystander cells and the shutdown of key liver genes in human iPSC-derived hepatocytes. Stem Cell Reports. 2022 Oct 11; 17(10):2286-2302.View Related Profiles. PMID: 36084636; PMCID: PMC9561183; DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2022.08.003;
     
  7. Werder RB, Liu T, Abo KM, Lindstrom-Vautrin J, Villacorta-Martin C, Huang J, Hinds A, Boyer N, Bullitt E, Liesa M, Silverman EK, Kotton DN, Cho MH, Zhou X, Wilson AA. CRISPR interference interrogation of COPD GWAS genes reveals the functional significance of desmoplakin in iPSC-derived alveolar epithelial cells. Sci Adv. 2022 Jul 15; 8(28):eabo6566.View Related Profiles. PMID: 35857525; PMCID: PMC9278866; DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo6566;
     
  8. Hume AJ, Heiden B, Olejnik J, Suder EL, Ross S, Scoon WA, Bullitt E, Ericsson M, White MR, Turcinovic J, Thao TTN, Hekman RM, Kaserman JE, Huang J, Alysandratos KD, Toth GE, Jakab F, Kotton DN, Wilson AA, Emili A, Thiel V, Connor JH, Kemenesi G, Cifuentes D, Mühlberger E. Correction: Recombinant Lloviu virus as a tool to study viral replication and host responses. PLoS Pathog. 2022 Jun; 18(6):e1010659.View Related Profiles. PMID: 35749346; PMCID: PMC9231773; DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010659;
     
  9. Werder RB, Huang J, Abo KM, Hix OT, Minakin K, Alysandratos KD, Merritt C, Berthiaume K, Alber AB, Burgess CL, Kotton DN, Wilson AA. Generating 3D Spheres and 2D Air-Liquid Interface Cultures of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Type 2 Alveolar Epithelial Cells. J Vis Exp. 2022 Apr 15; (182).View Related Profiles. PMID: 35499347
     
  10. Abo KM, Sainz de Aja J, Lindstrom-Vautrin J, Alysandratos KD, Richards A, Garcia-de-Alba C, Huang J, Hix OT, Werder RB, Bullitt E, Hinds A, Falconer I, Villacorta-Martin C, Jaenisch R, Kim CF, Kotton DN, Wilson AA. Air-liquid interface culture promotes maturation and allows environmental exposure of pluripotent stem cell-derived alveolar epithelium. JCI Insight. 2022 Mar 22; 7(6).View Related Profiles. PMID: 35315362; PMCID: PMC8986076; DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.155589;
     
Showing 10 of 45 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 45 publications over 16 distinct years, with a maximum of 10 publications in 2022

YearPublications
19931
20083
20091
20121
20132
20141
20152
20161
20173
20184
20191
20207
20214
202210
20231
20243


Base Editing Shows Promise as Common Inherited Lung and Liver Disease Therapy

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News 7/15/2021

How Coronavirus Damages Lung Cells within Mere Hours

BU Today 1/11/2021

Researchers Find How COVID-19 Hijacks Lung Cells

Contagion Live 12/3/2020

In Deadly COVID-19 Lung Inflammation, BU Researchers Discover a Culprit in NFkB Pathway

BU Today 9/24/2020

What Sets Off Deadly Levels of Lung Inflammation in Some COVID-19 Patients?

BU Today 9/8/2020

Promotions to Associate Professor Go to 16 on Medical Campus

BU Today 7/6/2018
In addition to these self-described keywords below, a list of MeSH based concepts is available here.

alpha-1 antitrypsin
gene therapy
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