Dr. Castellot is a Navigator at Tufts CTSI. His research focuses on translating an understanding of the mechanisms and molecules regulating smooth muscle proliferation into therapies for pathologic conditions such as restenosis, fibroids, and asthma. His earlier research led directly to the use of low-molecular weight heparins (e.g., Lovanox) in the treatment of deep vein thrombosis. More recently, his group has developed a human fibroid-mouse xenograft model system for testing potential anti-fibroid therapies, including a small protein (CCN5) discovered in his laboratory.

Dr. Castellot has been dedicated to mentoring and teaching for more than 30 years. During that time, he has successfully mentored more than a dozen PhD students, several post-doctoral fellows, and dozens of medical students, master’s degree candidates, and undergraduates. He has been the Director of the PhD Program in Cell, Molecular and Developmental Biology at the Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences since 1998. In 2005, he helped design and implement the Integrated Studies Program that provides a unified admissions and first-year curriculum for three of the seven Graduate School PhD programs. The ISP has been highly successful, attracting approximately 300 applicants annually from across the US and abroad for 10-12 positions. He has received more than two dozen teaching and mentoring awards, including the Dean’s Mentoring Award, which requires nomination by students and is a career award for outstanding mentoring. As a Chicano, he has a deeply-held commitment to mentoring minority students. He initiated a program with Roxbury Community College in Boston and received their Medal of Excellence for this work. He has served as either an academic adviser and/or a laboratory adviser to four-to-six underrepresented minority students in the NIH-funded summer research program for more than 15 years.