Reza Dana

Reza Dana is an American ophthalmologist and immunologist.

Biography Reza Dana, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc, F.A.R.V.O. Dr. Reza Dana is the Claes Dohlman Chair in Ophthalmology, Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, and Senior Scientist & W. Clement Stone Scholar at The Schepens Eye Research Institute, as well as the Director, Cornea & Refractive Surgery, Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, Vice Chairman of Harvard Department of Ophthalmology, and Director of the Harvard Medical School Cornear Center for Excellence. Dr. Dana completed his bachelor’s, graduate, and medical education at Johns Hopkins University and performed his residency at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, followed by fellowships in Cornea and External Diseases at the Wills Eye Hospital, in Uveitis at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear, and in Ocular and Transplantation Immunology at The Schepens Eye Research Institute, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Dana also holds a Masters in Management from Harvard university. He is a 'Gold Fellow' of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) and has authored over 340 research articles and reviews, and has delivered more than 200 invited and named lectures worldwide.

Dr. Dana is one of the most widely cited ophthalmologists and vision scientists, with over 15,000 citations of his work as of fall, 2015. His h-factor is 65 (i.e. 65 of his articles have been cited at least 65 times). As a result of his scientific scholarship, he has been the recipient of multiple awards, including the Special Scholar Award, Physician-Scientist Award, Lew R. Wasserman Award, and The Senior Scientific Investigator Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, the Cogan Award from ARVO, the LSU Chancellor's Award in Neuroscience and Ophthalmology, and the Alcon Research Institute Award, Dr. Dana is Associate Editor of IOVS, and is on the editorial boards of the journals Cornea and The Ocular Surface. In addition to his basic laboratory investigations, Dr. Dana leads a large translational research program at Mass. Eye and Ear that has received a number of IND permits from the FDA in just the last few years Apart from his many clinical trainees, Dr. Dana has trained over 100 post-doctoral fellows, students, and scientists from 30 countries in his laboratory to date.

Education & Postgraduate Training: Diploma Summa Cum Laude, Saint Paul’s School, Concord NH Bachelor of Arts (BA) Phi Beta Kappa, Johns Hopkins University Master of Public Health (MPH), Johns Hopkins University Doctor of Medicine (MD), Johns Hopkins University Master of Science (MSc) in Health Care Management, Harvard University Illinois Eye & Ear Infirmary Wills Eye Hospital, Fellow Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Fellow Harvard Medical School, Fellow

Awards and Honors:

1981 National cum Laude Society 1984 Phi Beta Kappa (Junior Year), Johns Hopkins University 1989 Henry Strong Dennison Award for Research, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 1990 NEI/Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Travel Fellowship 1995 Heed Ophthalmic Foundation Fellowship (Ocular Immunology) 1996 Named Knapp Fellow of the Society of Heed Fellows (Special Recognition Award) 1996 Clinical Scientist Career Award (KO8) from NIH 1999 Invited Participant, RPB National Science Writers Seminar 1999 Research to Prevent Blindness William & Mary Greve Scholar (RPB Special Scholar Award) 2002 Achievement Award, American Academy of Ophthalmology 2002 Kronfeld Memorial Lecturer, Illinois Eye & Ear Infirmary 2002 Fry Memorial Lecturer, Wills Eye Hospital Biennial Cornea Conference 2003 Cogan Award, Association for Research In Vision and Ophthalmology 2003 Dohlman Lecturer, Biennial Cornea Conference, Harvard Dept. of Ophthalmology 2004 Alta Lecturer and visiting professorship, University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) 2004 Keynote Speaker, 28th All-Japan Cornea Conference, Yonago, Japan 2005 Research to Prevent Blindness Physician Scientist-Merit Award 2006 Service Recognition Award, American Academy of Ophthalmology 2007- Listed, “Best Doctors of America” (selected by peers) 2007- Listed, “Best of Boston” Ophthalmologists (selected by peers), Boston Magazine 2007- Listed, “Best Ophthalmologists of America” (selected by peers) 2008 Alcon Research Institute Award 2009 Research to Prevent Blindness Lew R. Wasserman-Merit Award 2011 David Easty Lecturer, Bowman Club, Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh 2011 Joaquin Barraquer Lecture, Spanish Congress of Ophthalmology, Oviedo, Spain 2012 LSU Chancellor’s Award in Neuroscience and Ophthalmology 2012 Mentoring Award, European Young Investigator Network for Ocular Surface Inflammation 2013 Senior Scientific Investigator Award, Research to Prevent Blindness 2013 Gold Fellow, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2013 Keynote Speaker, Biennial Meeting of the European Society of Ophthalmology (SOE) 2014 Thygeson Lecture, Ocular Microbiology and Immunology Group, Chicago, IL 2014 A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award, Harvard Medical School 2015 Kersley Lecture, British Ocular Surface Society, London, England 2015 Keynote Address and Certificate of Honor, European Association for Vision and Eye Research (EVER), Nice, France 2016 Roger Meyer Lecture, University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center

Research Focus: Dr. Dana is an ophthalmologist and immunologist whose principal research interest is in determining the molecular and cellular regulation of ocular immunity. The aims of Dr. Dana’s research program are to (1) unravel the molecular and cellular processes that are responsible for initiating and sustaining immuno-inflammatory responses in the eye, and thereby (2) develop specific molecular targeting strategies to promote mechanisms that engender immune unresponsiveness without placing the eye or the patient at risk of toxicity or secondary infections. Areas of investigation include transplantation, angiogenesis, allergy, stem cells, and dry eye disease. Dr. Dana’s research is supported by several federal grants.

Mentoring:

In addition to research, Dr. Dana has focused on education of trainees, both clinical and research. This has included teaching of postdoctoral research fellows, clinical fellows and residents, and medical students and graduate students enrolled in various Harvard Medical School curricula. Overall, he has served as primary mentor to over 90 trainees in ophthalmology and eye research. In addition, as a strong believer in the importance of clinical scientists in bridging the wide gap between basic science and clinical applications, Dr. Dana directs the Harvard-Vision Clinical Scientist Development Program funded by the NIH K12 mechanism- with the express intent of recruiting, training, and retaining the brightest young minds to Harvard to contribute to research efforts. He has served as PI/Director for this program since its inception at Harvard Ophthalmology in 2004. In 2014, he received the A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award at Harvard Medical School.

Research Focus: Dr. Dana is an ophthalmologist and immunologist whose principal research interest is in determining the molecular and cellular regulation of ocular immunity. The aims of his research program are to (1) unravel the molecular and cellular processes that are responsible for initiating and sustaining immuno-inflammatory responses in the cornea and anterior segment, and thereby (2) develop specific molecular targeting strategies to promote mechanisms that engender immune unresponsiveness without placing the eye or the patient at risk of toxicity or secondary infections. Areas of investigation include transplantation, angiogenesis (blood vessel development), stem cells, and dry eye disease. In addition, Dr. Dana has active collaborations in the field of bioengineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for applications in surgical adhesives, drug delivery and ocular prostheses. Dr. Dana’s research is supported by several federal grants among others.

http://www.schepens.harvard.edu/dana

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