Joan Nichols's Biography

Joan Nichols, Professor, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston

Joan E. Nichols Ph.D. is currently a Professor of the both the Departments of Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases and the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (UTMB), Texas. Dr. Nichols has been involved in research projects examining alterations in immune response of the lung after exposure to pollutants and/or respiratory pathogens and has expertise in the areas of general immunology, inflammation, disease pathogenesis, stem cell characterization/differentiation, wound healing, transplantation immunology, lung defense and respiratory pathogens. Her research group has used adult and embryonic stem cells combined with tissue engineering techniques to produce human microphysiologic bioengineered human tissue models to study lung physiology and disease pathogenesis. Publication highlights include manuscripts demonstrating production of whole human acellular scaffolds, production of bioengineered pediatric lungs from adult lung cells and production and transplantation of bioengineered lung in a large animal, pig model.