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.
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. He is a member of editorial boards of 10 journals, including as editor-in-chief of Cornea.
Education and training
Dana attended the Tehran International School during his early years and graduated summa cum laude from St. Paul's School, New Hampshire. 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. 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.
Research and career
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.
Dana's research focus is in the area of immuno-inflammatory disorders of the cornea and ocular surface. He has published over 370 peer-reviewed publications and over 150 reviews, edited several books and serves as the senior editor for Elsevier's Encyclopedia of the Eye. His work has been cited more than 25000 times and carries an h-index of 82. His is widely recognized for (i) identifying, phenotyping and functionally characterizing resident bone marrow-derived antigen-presenting cells (APC) of the cornea, (ii) identifying novel mechanisms of corneal APC trafficking, (iii) defining novel functional interactions between lymphatic endothelia and APC, (iv) identifying selective topical cytokine and chemokine targeting to promote transplant survival by suppressing effector T cells, (v) defining novel mechanisms employed by the corneal epithelium to maintain angiogenic privilege including the VEGFR-3 sink and PD-L1 mechanisms, (vi) developing strategies to promote corneal endothelial cell survival in transplantation, including gene therapy.