Reza Dana


Reza Dana is the Claes H. Dohlman Chair in Ophthalmology, Senior Scientist and W. Clement Stone Clinical Research Scholar, Director of Cornea at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Vice Chair for Academic Programs at the Department of Ophthalmology, 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 mechanisms of ocular inflammation with translational applications to transplantation, autoimmunity, 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 the ophthalmology faculty at the Harvard Medical School as an Instructor in 1995 and has been a faculty member there ever since. In 2006, he was named the director of the 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.
Dana's research focus is in the area of immuno-inflammatory disorders of the cornea and ocular surface. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed publications and over 150 reviews, and edited several books. His work has been cited more than 53000 times and carries an h-index of 110 as per Google Scholar. His is widely recognized for identifying, phenotyping and functionally characterizing resident bone marrow-derived antigen-presenting cells of the cornea, identifying novel mechanisms of corneal APC trafficking, defining novel functional interactions between lymphatic endothelia and APC, identifying selective topical cytokine and chemokine targeting to promote transplant survival by suppressing effector T cells, defining novel mechanisms employed by the corneal epithelium to maintain angiogenic privilege including the VEGFR-3 sink and PD-L1 mechanisms, developing strategies to promote corneal endothelial cell survival in transplantation, including gene therapy. demonstrating the function of memory Th17 cells in pathogenesis of ocular surface autoimmunity. evaluating the role of regulatory T cells in corneal graft tolerance. insights into the contribution of diabetes to alterations in corneal graft immunity. developing novel biomaterials for therapeutics delivery to the eye.

Lectures, awards and honors

Teaching and Mentoring

Dana is the Vice Chair for Academic Programs at the Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear and a faculty for the Graduate Program in Immunology, Harvard Medical School. He is the recipient of the Harvard Medical School Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award, the top mentoring award bestowed at Harvard Medical School. He has mentored over 150 postdoctoral research fellows from 36 countries, 250 clinical fellows and residents, medical students, and graduate students. He has been the director of the National Institutes of Health-funded Harvard-Vision Clinical Scientist Development Program since 2004.