Reviewing interests: molecular mechanisms of inherited retinal diseases, inherited glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration (AMD)

Dr. Iwata is the Division Director of the National Institute of Sensory Organs, National Hospital Organization Tokyo Medical Center. He received his PhD from Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan and immediately joined the National Eye Institute (NEI), NIH as a postdoctoral fellow to work on X-linked retinitis pigmentosa. He moved to Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami in 1989 with his NEI supervisor and spent two years there. In 1991, he returned to NEI to work on the transcriptional regulation of aldose reductase and sorbitol dehydrogenase, one of the major pathways for diabetic retinopathy. He returned to Japan and started his lab in 2000. His research is focuses on the retina and to understanding the molecular mechanism of disease onset. He has worked on normal tension glaucoma (NTG), age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and inherited retinal diseases (IRD). His research expands from identification of novel disease-causing genes, development of animal models (mouse, monkey) and patient iPSC for pathological and cellular studies. His recent work on identification of RP1L1 gene for occult macular dystrophy (Miyake’s Disease), OPTN gene for NTG and HTRA1 gene for AMD is well known. He is now the head of the Japan Eye Genetics Consortium (JEGC, http://jegc.org) for IRD. Over 38 Ophthalmology Departments and Institutions in Japan are involved to collect phenotype-genotype data. He has now expanded this consortium to establish the Global Eye Genetics Consortium (GEGC, http://gegc.org) in collaboration with 33 countries. He serves as the current president of GEGC and developed phenotype-genotype database “GenEye” for global use. He holds executive positions in the governance of national and international societies including the International Society for Eye Research (Vice President) and editorial boards of ophthalmology journals. Dr. Iwata‘s research has been continuously funded for the past 20 years by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED), the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), National Hospital Organization (NHO) and the National Eye Institute RO1 grant.

Editorial Board Member of AES

Terms of Appointment: May 2019 – Apr 2021; May 2021 – Apr 2023

Updated on May 19, 2021