Reza Dana | |
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Education | St. Paul's School Johns Hopkins University (BA, MD, MPH) Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary (residency) Wills Eye Hospital Massachusetts Eye and Ear Harvard University (MSc) |
Alma mater | St. Paul's School Johns Hopkins University Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary Wills Eye Hospital Harvard Medical School |
Occupation(s) | Claes H. Dohlman Chair of Ophthalmology, W. Clement Stone Clinical Research Scholar Harvard Medical School |
Known for | Dry Eye Disease Corneal Transplantation Research Ocular Trauma |
Medical career | |
Field | Medical research, Immunology Ophthalmology |
Institutions | Massachusetts Eye and Ear Massachusetts General Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical School Harvard University |
Reza Dana is the Claes H. Dohlman Professor of Ophthalmology, senior scientist and W. Clement Stone Clinical Research Scholar at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, and director of the Harvard-Vision Clinical Scientist Development Program. [1]
Dana is an internationally recognized expert in the field of corneal disorders and ocular inflammation. He is best known for his work on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of ocular inflammation with translational applications to autoimmunity, transplantation, dry eye disease, and angiogenesis. [2] He is a member of editorial boards of 10 journals, including as editor-in-chief of Cornea. [3] [4]
Dana attended the Tehran International School during his early years and graduated summa cum laude from St. Paul's School, New Hampshire. [5] He pursued his baccalaureate degree at Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences, where he was invited to join the Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Dana attended medical school at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and also obtained a master's degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. [6] He received his Ophthalmology residency training at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, and clinical cornea and external diseases fellowship at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. He received advanced fellowship training in Immunology and Uveitis at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear and pursued laboratory research training in Ocular and Transplantation Immunology Laboratory at the Schepens Eye Research Institute, Harvard Medical School under the mentorship of the late J. Wayne Streilein. [6]
Dana joined as an instructor in the department of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School in 1995 and has been a faculty member here ever since. In 2006, he was named the director of Cornea Service at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, and in 2007, he was appointed the Claes H. Dohlman Chair in Ophthalmology and vice chairman for academic programs. He is also an honorary professor of ophthalmology at Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University. [7]
Dana's research focus is in the area of immuno-inflammatory disorders of the cornea and ocular surface. He has published over 500 peer-reviewed publications and over 150 reviews, edited several books and serves as the senior editor for Elsevier's Encyclopedia of the Eye. [8] [9] His work has been cited more than 53000 times and carries an h-index of 110. [10] His is widely recognized for (i) identifying, phenotyping and functionally characterizing resident bone marrow-derived antigen-presenting cells (APC) of the cornea, [11] (ii) identifying novel mechanisms of corneal APC trafficking, [12] (iii) defining novel functional interactions between lymphatic endothelia and APC, [13] (iv) identifying selective topical cytokine and chemokine targeting to promote transplant survival by suppressing effector T cells, [14] [15] [16] [17] (v) defining novel mechanisms employed by the corneal epithelium to maintain angiogenic privilege including the VEGFR-3 sink [18] and PD-L1 mechanisms, [19] (vi) developing strategies to promote corneal endothelial cell survival in transplantation, including gene therapy. [20] [21] (vi) demonstrating the function of memory Th17 cells in pathogenesis of ocular surface autoimmunity. [22] [23] [24] (vii) evaluating the role of regulatory T cells in corneal graft tolerance. [25] [26] [27] (viii) understanding the contribution of diabetes to alterations in corneal graft immunity. [28] (ix) developing novel biomaterials for therapeutics delivery to the eye. [29] [30]
Dana is the vice chair of academic programs at the Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear and a faculty for the Graduate Program in Immunology, Harvard Medical School. [2] He is the recipient of the Harvard Medical School Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award, the top mentoring award bestowed at Harvard Medical School. [39] He has mentored over 120 postdoctoral research fellows from 33 countries, 250 clinical fellows and residents, medical students, and graduate students enrolled in Harvard Medical School. He is the director of the NIH-funded Harvard-Vision Clinical Scientist Development Program since 2004. [58]
Keratoconus (KC) is a disorder of the eye that results in progressive thinning of the cornea. This may result in blurry vision, double vision, nearsightedness, irregular astigmatism, and light sensitivity leading to poor quality-of-life. Usually both eyes are affected. In more severe cases, a scarring or a circle may be seen within the cornea.
The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. Along with the anterior chamber and lens, the cornea refracts light, accounting for approximately two-thirds of the eye's total optical power. In humans, the refractive power of the cornea is approximately 43 dioptres. The cornea can be reshaped by surgical procedures such as LASIK.
A pterygium of the eye is a pinkish, roughly triangular tissue growth of the conjunctiva onto the cornea of the eye. It typically starts on the cornea near the nose. It may slowly grow but rarely grows so large that it covers the pupil and impairs vision. Often both eyes are involved.
Corneal transplantation, also known as corneal grafting, is a surgical procedure where a damaged or diseased cornea is replaced by donated corneal tissue. When the entire cornea is replaced it is known as penetrating keratoplasty and when only part of the cornea is replaced it is known as lamellar keratoplasty. Keratoplasty simply means surgery to the cornea. The graft is taken from a recently deceased individual with no known diseases or other factors that may affect the chance of survival of the donated tissue or the health of the recipient.
Fuchs dystrophy, also referred to as Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD) and Fuchs endothelial dystrophy (FED), is a slowly progressing corneal dystrophy that usually affects both eyes and is slightly more common in women than in men. Although early signs of Fuchs dystrophy are sometimes seen in people in their 30s and 40s, the disease rarely affects vision until people reach their 50s and 60s.
Corneal neovascularization (CNV) is the in-growth of new blood vessels from the pericorneal plexus into avascular corneal tissue as a result of oxygen deprivation. Maintaining avascularity of the corneal stroma is an important aspect of healthy corneal physiology as it is required for corneal transparency and optimal vision. A decrease in corneal transparency causes visual acuity deterioration. Corneal tissue is avascular in nature and the presence of vascularization, which can be deep or superficial, is always pathologically related.
Pedram Hamrah is a German-American ophthalmologist and immunologist. He obtained his M.D. from the University of Cologne, Germany.
Keratoprosthesis is a surgical procedure where a diseased cornea is replaced with an artificial cornea. Traditionally, keratoprosthesis is recommended after a person has had a failure of one or more donor corneal transplants. More recently, a less invasive, non-penetrating artificial cornea has been developed which can be used in more routine cases of corneal blindness. While conventional cornea transplant uses donor tissue for transplant, an artificial cornea is used in the keratoprosthesis procedure. The surgery is performed to restore vision in patients with severely damaged cornea due to congenital birth defects, infections, injuries and burns.
J. Wayne Streilein was a scientist whose main area of research was the ocular immune system. He is known particularly for studying the mechanisms that keep the cornea avascular despite the inflammatory and other stimuli that usually promote small blood vessel ingrowth; these peculiar corneal mechanisms provide the basis for what is known as the "corneal antiangiogenic privilege".
Sclerocornea is an extremely rare congenital anomaly of the eye, it is considered a form of congenital corneal opacity (CCO) with no clear gender bias, in which the cornea blends with sclera, having no clear-cut boundary. The extent of the resulting opacity varies from peripheral to total. While the exact historical origins of its documentation are unclear, studies on sclerocornea has long been recognized in ophthalmology as a rare but significant anomaly going as far back as the 1960's. The severe form is thought to be inherited in an autosomal recessive manner, but there may be another, milder form that is expressed in a dominant fashion. In some cases the patients also have abnormalities beyond the eye (systemic), such as limb deformities and craniofacial and genitourinary defects.
Boston keratoprosthesis is a collar button design keratoprosthesis or artificial cornea. It is composed of a front plate with a stem, which houses the optical portion of the device, a back plate and a titanium locking c-ring. It is available in type I and type II formats. The type I design is used much more frequently than the type II which is reserved for severe end stage dry eye conditions and is similar to the type I except it has a 2 mm anterior nub designed to penetrate through a tarsorrhaphy. The type I format will be discussed here as it is more commonly used.
Sheraz Daya is a British ophthalmologist. Daya founded the Centre for Sight in 1996, and works in stem-cell research and sight restoration and correction surgery.
Mooren's ulcer is a rare idiopathic ocular disorder that may lead to blindness due to progressive destruction of the peripheral cornea. Although the etiology of Mooren's ulcer is poorly understood, recent evidence suggests that the pathogenesis of this disease appears to be the result of an autoimmune process directed against molecules expressed in the corneal stroma.
Keryn Anne Williams is an Australian medical scientist who works in the field of ophthalmology. She was a Principal Research Fellow in the School of Medicine at Flinders University. Her research interests include clinical and experimental corneal transplantation, ocular inflammation, ocular immunology and eye banking.
Virender Singh Sangwan is an Indian ophthalmologist and the Dr. Paul Dubord Chair professor and director of the L. V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad. Known for his research on limbal stem cells, Sangwan is the founder secretary and an adviser of the Uveitis Society of India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Medical Sciences in 2006.
Alireza Mashaghi is a physician-scientist and biophysicist at Leiden University. He is known for his contributions to single-molecule analysis of chaperone assisted protein folding, molecular topology and medical systems biophysics and bioengineering. He is a leading advocate for interdisciplinary research and education in medicine and pharmaceutical sciences.
Corneal opacification is a term used when the human cornea loses its transparency. The term corneal opacity is used particularly for the loss of transparency of cornea due to scarring. Transparency of the cornea is dependent on the uniform diameter and the regular spacing and arrangement of the collagen fibrils within the stroma. Alterations in the spacing of collagen fibrils in a variety of conditions including corneal edema, scars, and macular corneal dystrophy is clinically manifested as corneal opacity. The term corneal blindness is commonly used to describe blindness due to corneal opacity.
Herbert Edward Kaufman is an American ophthalmologist who discovered idoxuridine, the first clinically useful antiviral agent; co-developed with William Bourne the clinical specular microscope to view the live corneal endothelium, co-developed timolol with Thomas Zimmerman, a new class of medications to treat glaucoma; corneal storage media for eye banks; natamycin, the first commercially available medication to treat fungal infections of the eye; co-developed with Tony Gasset the use of bandage contact lenses; and was involved in the first laser vision photorefractive keratectomy of the eye with Marguarite McDonald.
Exposure keratopathy is medical condition affecting the cornea of eyes. It can lead to corneal ulceration and permanent loss of vision due to corneal opacity.
Anastasios John Kanellopoulos is a Greek-American eye surgeon specializing in corneal transplantation, cornea crosslinking for keratoconus, complicated cataract surgery and complicated glaucoma. Widely known for research and clinical contributions in micro-incision cataract, customized laser refractive surgery and corneal cross-linking propagation and most innovations, reducing corneal transplants for advanced keratoconus.