Takeshi Iwata, PhD, FARVO

Welcome to Iwata Lab, the Molecular and Cellular Biology Division at the National Institute of Sensory Organs, National Hospital Organization Tokyo Medical Center. Our division focuses on the molecular mechanism of disease onset of retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, inherited glaucoma, inherited optic neuropathy and inherited retinal diseases. Based on these basic information, potential methods for therapeutics and diagnostics of retinal diseases are being developed in the lab. Iwata Lab has identified and characterized number of novel disease-causing genes including RP1L1, CCT2, C21orf2, LRRTM4, MCAT and METTL23. Use of patient iPS cells differentiating into retinal cells and development of knock-in animal disease models has been helpful to identify these genes. Iwata Lab is responsible for two large research consortiums for domestic and international. The Japan Eye Genetics Consortium (JEGC) focus on 36 different inherited retinal diseases to identify the disease-causing mutations in Japanese population. Over 30 Ophthalmology Departments in Japan are involved in this consortium. The Global Eye Genetics Consortium (GEGC) started in 2014 as Asian Eye Genetics Consortium and expanded in 2018 to explore population with unique phenotype and genotype at global scale. GEGC is now has members from 38 countries and actively expanding to Africa and Central & South America.