Akiko Iwasaki

Akiko Iwasaki is Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Iwasaki’s research focuses on the mechanisms of immune defense against viruses at the mucosal surfaces. Her laboratory is interested in how innate recognition of viral infections lead to the generation of adaptive immunity, and how adaptive immunity mediates protection against subsequent viral challenge. Ultimately, their goal is to improve rational design of effective therapeutics and vaccines to prevent transmission of viral pathogens.

Iwasaki turned her focus to SARS-CoV-2 soon after reading the first reports coming out of China. She and her team have published almost two dozen papers addressing a variety of COVID-19-related questions, ranging from a new mouse model to help researchers replicate and study how the virus works in humans to the use of a saliva test not only for diagnosis but also to determine who will develop complications from the disease. Iwasaki and her team have contributed to a growing body of knowledge about how autoimmunity plays a role in severe COVID-19 illness.

She received her PhD from the University of Toronto in Canada and completed her postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health.