Billy Hudson

Billy G. Hudson, Ph.D., is the Elliott V. Newman Professor of Medicine and Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Matrix Biology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He holds additional appointments as Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, Professor of Biochemistry, and Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology. Within Biology, Hudson has made pioneering contributions to extracellular matrix research and tissue development. His academic background includes a B.S. in Chemistry and Physics from Henderson State Teachers College in 1962, an M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Tennessee Medical School in 1964, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Iowa in 1966. Following his doctorate, he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine from 1966 to 1968 and at Harvard University Medical Center from 1968 to 1970. Additionally, he graduated from the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College between 1982 and 1986.

Hudson's five-decade research career centers on the chemistry, biology, pathology, and evolutionary origins of the basement membrane, an extracellular scaffold essential for multicellular tissue formation, with a primary focus on type IV collagen. Major discoveries encompass the α3, α4, and α5 chains forming the triple-helical scaffold in the glomerular basement membrane, which serves as the autoantigen in Goodpasture’s disease; the crystal structure of the scaffold's recognition module; the sulfilimine (-S=N-) bond stabilized by peroxidasin and bromide; bromine's essentiality for tissue genesis; and a chloride-ring signaling mechanism in collagen IV scaffold assembly. These breakthroughs have advanced knowledge of kidney pathologies including Goodpasture’s disease, hereditary Alport syndrome, and diabetic renal disease, contributing to the identification of 2000 genetic variants associated with Alport syndrome and illuminating collagen's role in the transition from single cells to multicellular organisms. Prominent publications include "Alport's syndrome, Goodpasture's syndrome, and type IV collagen" (New England Journal of Medicine, 2003), "Mammalian collagen IV" (Microscopy Research and Technique, 2008), "Type IV collagen: structure, gene organization and role in human diseases" (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 1993), and "Bromine is an essential trace element for assembly of collagen IV scaffolds in tissue development and architecture" (Cell, 2014). Hudson has been honored with the 2017 Carl Brändén Award from the Protein Society and named a 2026 Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipient. He co-founded the Aspirnaut program to mentor rural and underserved students in biomedical research.

Professional Email: billy.hudson@vanderbilt.edu