Iwasaki was born and raised inIga, Japan by her father Hiroshi, a physicist, and mother Fumiko, who fought for women's rights in the workplace.[5] She has two sisters.[5] After high school she moved toToronto, Canada, where in 1994, she received her bachelor's degree inbiochemistry andphysics from theUniversity of Toronto. She had hopes of becoming amathematician or physicist like her father. However, her interests changed after taking animmunology class.[2]
Iwasaki earned her doctoral degree in immunology from the University of Toronto in 1998. Iwasaki did her postdoctoral fellow at theNational Institutes of Health in the lab of mucosal immunologistBrian Lee Kelsall.[5] In 2000, she started her own lab at Yale University.[2] In 2022, Iwasaki was awarded a Sterling Professorship, the highest academic honor professors receive at Yale University.[6]
Herpes simplex virions, TEM.Herpes simplex virus is one of the many viruses Iwasaki studies.Making of a DNA vaccine. Iwasaki investigated howDNA vaccination elicit an immune response.
While working on her PhD project of howDNA vaccines elicit an immune response, Iwasaki was among the first to show thatantigen-presenting cells were in the blood, not the muscle.[5] At the time scientists thought muscle cells were essential for alerting the immune system of foreign proteins, orantigens, coded for by the vaccines because the DNA vaccines work best when injected into the muscle.[2]
Iwasaki's research continues to focus on understandinginnate immunity and how that information is used to produce protectiveadaptive immunity. Iwasaki and her team study immune responses to influenza in the lungs and herpes simplex virus in the genital tract. Overall, the goal is to design effectivevaccines ormicrobiocides for the prevention of transmission of viral and bacterial pathogens.[7] Iwasaki has developed a two-stage vaccination strategy called "prime and pull" that involves a conventional vaccine as a first step and then application of chemokines to the target tissue as a second step.[5] Based on this strategy, Iwasaki has developed a vaccine that is currently in a clinical trial to treat women with precancerous lesions in the cervix to prevent cervical cancer.[5] Serving on Yale University's Science Strategy Committee, Iwasaki has advocated for harnessing the beneficial aspects of inflammation to "combat widespread diseases like stroke, heart disease, and diabetes".[8]
Building on her interests in immune responses to viral infection, Iwasaki has also led research intohuman rhinovirus andZika virus.[5] Iwasaki's group was notably the first to create amouse model of a vaginal Zika infection.[5] Most recently, Iwasaki has delved into research looking at the immune response ofCOVID-19 patients and sex differences inSARS-CoV-2 infection.[9][10][11] She is also examining the effects ofLong COVID and other syndromes that occur following acute infections.[12]
According to Google Scholar, one of her publications, "Toll-like receptor control of the adaptive immune response,"[13] has been cited over 5,300 times as of August 2023 and was published inNature Immunology in October 2004.[14] In January 2015, one of Iwasaki's studies was published in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.[7] The study, "Temperature-dependent innate defense against the common cold virus limits viral replication at warm temperature in mouse airway cells", investigates the relationship between temperature and immune responses.[15]
Iwasaki is well known as an advocate forwomen in science, including voicing support for affordable childcare.[9][16][17] Additionally, she has spoken out in support of immigrants and their contributions to science.[18] Iwasaki has gained a following on Twitter for her public health advice aboutCOVID-19, advocating forsocial distancing early in the pandemic.[19][20][21]
Iwasaki, A.; Medzhitov, R. (2004). "Toll-like receptor control of the adaptive immune responses".Nature Immunology.5 (4):987–995.doi:10.1038/ni1112.PMID15454922.S2CID11284900.
"Long Covid: A parallel pandemic", Akiko Iwasaki and others,Knowable Magazine, August 8, 2022.
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