Nobuhiko
Shiraki

Nobuhiko Shiraki, MD, PhD is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Ophthalmology at Duke University School of Medicine. He is working in the laboratory of Dr. Daniel Saban to investigate immunological mechanisms in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). He earned an M.D. from Osaka University in 2010 and completed his residency and vitreoretinal surgery fellowship at the same institution. During his clinical training, he performed approximately 800 vitreoretinal surgeries and 2,000 cataract procedures. Motivated by the challenges of treating advanced retinal diseases in underserved populations, he pursued a Ph.D. at Osaka University in 2022, where he studied retinal immunology, gene editing, and stem cell biology and published research identifying niche microglia in human iPSC-derived eye organoid. His current research focuses on microglia and perivascular macrophages in mouse models of AMD, aiming to clarify the roles of non-homeostatic immune cells in disease progression. He has received numerous honors, including the Academic Encouragement Awards from the Japanese Ophthalmological Society and the Japanese Ocular Inflammation Society and research grants from the Uehara Memorial Foundation and other organizations. His long-term goal is to develop broadly applicable immunological treatments for retinal degeneration, particularly those suited for deployment in resource-limited settings.