Mauricio Rojas, MD

Rojas_Mauricio_720x720 Vice Chair of Research, Department of Internal Medicine Professor

201 Davis Heart & Lung Research Institute
473 W. 12th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
614-247-0033
Mauricio.Rojas@osumc.edu

Mauricio Rojas is a Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Rojas received his undergraduate medical degree from the national University of Colombia and completed his postdoctoral training in Immunology at the Institute of Immunology, Colombia and Vanderbilt University. He has been a member of the American Thoracic Society since 2002. Dr. Rojas is a pioneer in the research of Mesenchymal Stem Cells as a mechanism of lung repair and the study of lung aging as a critical factor in the vulnerability to lung diseases. His ongoing projects include functional consequences of age-related exhaustion and senescence of mesenchymal cells and the development of human preclinical models for lung therapies. Emory University recognized his contributions with the Pulmonary Star Award in 2007 and the Early Career Award from the Department of Medicine in 2009. Subsequently, Dr. Rojas received the Dorothy Dillon Ewason Lecture Award for the American Federation of Aging (AFAR) in 2009, the Established Investigator Award from the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation in 2013, and the Faculty Translation Award from the Division of Pulmonary at the University of Pittsburgh. He was a co-founder of the Stem Cell Working Group and the Aging Working Group, which he chaired while at the University of Pittsburgh. He also was awarded the Carol Basaum Award in 2014.

Research Interests

Dr. Rojas’ research focus on the aging of stem cell and disease susceptibility and cell therapy for the treatment of acute and chronic respiratory distress syndrome.

Education and Training

Postdoctoral Fellow, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville Tennessee
Fellow, International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India
Research Fellowship, Institute of Immunology, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia
M.D., Universidad Nacional de Colombia Medical School, Bogota, Colombia
B.S., Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia

Editorial Activities

Ireland The Health Research Board (HRB), 2017-2020
NIH 2020/08 R35 Awards (IRG/SRG: ZHL1 CSR-R (O1)), 2020
CIRM, Special COVID-19 program, 2020
Science Foundation Ireland, 2019
NIH 2019/08 R35 Awards (IRG/SRG: ZHL1 CSR-R (O1), 2019
CMRF-University of Pittsburgh, 2019
MRC UKRI, 2018-2019
Evaluation Committee, PPG on Lung Aging, Division of Pulmonary, Northwestern University, Chicago, 2019
NIH 2019/05 R21 Awards (ZHL1 CSR-X (M1)), 2019
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), Netherlands, 2019
Department Of Defense: Peer Reviewed Medical Research Programs (PRMRP), 2019
RFA-HL-17-015 Bold New Bioengineering Methods and Approaches (R21), 2018
NIH ZRG1 CVRS-H (11) Study Section, 2017
Canada Foundation for Innovation, 2017
MRCI England, 2017
RFA-HL-17-015 Bold New Bioengineering Methods and Approaches (R21), 2017
The Lung Foundation Netherlands (LFN), (previous the Netherlands Asthma Foundation), 2016
The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), 2016
Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation, 2016
NIH Special panel RFA-HL-16-003, 2016
Ministry of Science, Technology and Space, Israel, 2015
Spanish National Evaluation and Foresight Agency (ANEP), 2015
ATS Foundation Research Review, 2014
NYSTEM Program Scientific Peer Advisory and Review, 2014
NIH-IMST 15 Cell, Computational, and Molecular Biology, 2013-2014
Spanish National Evaluation and Foresight Agency (ANEP), 2013
California Initiative for Regenerative Medicine, 2012
NIH-IMST 15 Cell, Computational, and Molecular Biology, 2012
ATS Foundation Research Review, 2012
NYSTEM Program Scientific Peer Advisory and Review, 2012
Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, 2011-2018
Cystic Fibrosis Center, Emory University, 2010
Promotion of International Scientific Cooperation, Spain, 2009
NIG, 2009
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Canada, 2009
TRANSNET, Canada, 2009
Board Medical Research Program / Inflammatory Bowel Disease Grants, 2009
Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, 2008
California Initiative for Regenerative Medicine, 2008-2015
Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 2008
University Research Committee (URC) Grant Review Panel, Emory University, 2004
Honors and Awards

Tenure, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, 2019 - 2020
Co-Chair. Award Committee, Division of Pulmonary, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 2019
The Dozer Visiting Professor Award. Ben-Gurion University, Be’ersheva, Israel, 2017
Honors Recognition University of Pittsburgh, 2015
PACCM Faculty Translational Scholar Award. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 2014
Carol Basbaum Award. ATS Assembly on Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, 2014
Established Investigator Award. Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, 2013
Travel Award – European Respiratory Society Conference. Estoril, Portugal, 2012
Travel Award – Society of Critical Care Medicine 41st Congress, 2012
Honors Recognition. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 2012
Respiratory Cell & Molecular Biology Service Award. ATS International Conference, Denver, CO, 2011
McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine Research Award. University of Pittsburgh, 2009
Dorothy Dillon Eweson Lecture. American Federation for Aging, 2009
Early Career Faculty Basic Research Award. Emory University Department of Medicine, 2009
Pulmonary Start Award. Emory University, 2007
President’s Commission on Race and Ethnicity (PCORE) Award. Emory University, 2006
EMERGE Consortium in AAAS, 2005
and the National Science Foundation (NSF) host Workshop, Atlanta, GA. Life Sciences. Minority Scientist Travel Award. American Association of Immunology, 2003
Best Poster in Signal Transduction Field - Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University, 1997
Recognition Award. Rotating Clinical Internship, Social Security Colombian Institute, 1987
Professional Memberships

Human Cell Atlas Lung Biological Network, 2020 - Present
Center for Medicine & the Microbiome University of Pittsburgh, 2020 - 2020
Aging Institute, University of Pittsburgh, 2019 - 2020
McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, 2010 - 2020
European Respiratory Society, 2018 – Present
Southern Society of Clinical Investigation, 2007 – Present
International Society of Stem Cell Research #4900, 2004 – Present
The Science Advisory Board. #64745, 2004 – Present
American Thoracic Society #00074658, 2002 – Present
New York Academy of Sciences #5019887, 2002 – Present
American Association of Immunologists #00210067, 2002 – Present
American Association for the Advancement of Science #042723589, 1997 - Present
Select Publications
1. Rojas M, Donahue JP, Tan Z, and Lin YZ. Genetic engineering of proteins with cell membrane permeability. Nat Biotechnol. 1998 Apr;16(4):370-5. PMID: 9555729
2. Rojas M, Xu J, Woods CR, Mora AL, Spears W, Roman J, and Brigham KL. Bone Marrow Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Repair of the Injured Lung. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2005 Aug;33(2):145-52. Epub 2005 May 12. PMID: 15891110
3. Xu J, Woods CR, Mora AL, Joodi R, Brigham KL, Iyer S, Rojas M. Prevention of Endotoxin-Induced Systemic Response by Bone Marrow- Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Mice. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2007 Jul;293(1):L131-41. Epub 2007 Apr 6. PMID: 17416739
4. Xu J, Gonzalez ET, Iyer SS, Mac V, Mora AL, Sutliff RL, Reed S, Brigham KL, Kelly P, Rojas M. Use of Senescence-Accelerate Mouse Model in Bleomycin-Induced Lung Injury Suggests that Bone Marrow-Derived Cells Can Alter the Outcome of Lung Injury in Aged Mice. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2009 Jul;64(7):731-9. doi: 10.1093/Gerona/glp040. Epub 2009 Apr9. PMID: 19359440
5. Grove D, Xu J, Joodi R, Torres-Gonzales E, Neujahr D, Mora AL and Rojas M. Attenuation of early airway obstruction by mesenchymal stem cells in a murine model of heterotopic tracheal transplantation. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2011 Mar;30(3):341-50 PMID: 2109329
6. Álvarez D, Cárdenes N, Sellarés J, Bueno M, Corey C, Hanumanthu V, Peng T, D’Cunha H, Sembrat J, Nouraie M, Shanker S, Caufield C, Shiva M, Armanios M, Mora AL and Rojas M. IPF lung fibroblasts have a senescent phenotype. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol.2017 Dec 1;313(6):L1164-L117. PMID:28860144.
7. Cárdenes N, Álvarez D, Sellarés J, Peng Y, Corey C, Wecht S, Nouraie SM, Shanker S, Sembrat J, Bueno M, Shiva S, Mora AL, Rojas M. Senescence of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells from patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Stem Cell Res Ther. 2018 Sep 26;9(1):257. PMID: 30257725
8. Weathington NM, Álvarez D, Sembrat J, Radder J, Cárdenes N, Noda K, Gong Q, Wong H, Kolls J, D'Cunha J, Mallampalli RK, Chen BB, Rojas M. Ex vivo lung perfusion as a human platform for preclinical small molecule testing. JCI Insight. 2018 Oct 4;3(19). PMID: 30282819
9. Morse C, Tabib T, Sembrat j, Trejo H, Buschur K, Valenzi E, Jiang Y, Gibson K, Chen W, Mora A, Benos P, Rojas M* and Lafyatis R*. Proliferating SPP1/MERTK-expressing macrophages in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Eur Respir J. 2019 Aug 22;54(2):1802441 PMID: 31221805. * equal contribution
10. Cruz T, Jia M, Sembrat J, Tabib T, Vignali D, Sanchez P, Lafyatis R, Mora AL, Benos P and Rojas M. A decrease in the proportion and activity of NK cells in the lung of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis patients. In press AJRCCM, 2021

Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine

Editorial Activities

Honors and Awards

Professional Memberships

Select Publications

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