Akiko Iwasaki, newly named as the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Immunobiology and of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB), focuses her research on the mechanisms of immune defense against viruses at the mucosal surfaces.
The immune system detects and eliminates harmful pathogens while maintaining a homeostatic relationship with beneficial microbes. Pathogens come in many forms — parasites, fungi, bacteria, and viruses — and must be flagged by the immune system as being harmful. Many pathogens enter the host through mucosal surfaces of the gut, nose, lung, and genital tract. The goal of Iwasaki laboratory’s is to understand how viral infections are recognized by innate immune cells to combat the infection, how commensal bacteria and endogenous viruses regulate our response to external ones, and how we can generate protective immunity at the site of pathogen encounter. Understanding how to generate pathogen-specific immune response at the mucosal surfaces provides key clues to designing effective vaccines.
Iwasaki is also known for her new vaccine strategy, “Prime and Pull,” which effectively creates immune barrier against herpes simplex virus. She studies immune response to herpes virus, influenza, rhinovirus, and HIV-1.
The Yale professor earned her B.Sc in biochemistry and Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Toronto. After postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health, Iwasaki joined the Yale faculty in 2000 as assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. Prior to her new appointment, she was a full professor of Immunobiology and of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. She is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Iwasaki is a widely published contributor to peer-reviewed journals, including Science, Nature, Immunity, Nature Immunology, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among other publications. Her research articles have also been featured in several Japanese journals, and she has contributed book chapters to eight scientific volumes. Iwasaki is associate editor of Trends in Immunology and has served as associate editor of Mucosal Immunology.
Iwasaki’s work has been supported by research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, among others. Her honors include the Eli Lilly and Company Research Award from the American Society for Microbiology, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in Pathogenesis in Infectious Diseases, and the BD Biosciences Investigator Award from the American Association of Immunologists.