Kazuya Oikawa, PhD

Dr. Oikawa earned his professional veterinary degree and completed a rotating internship. After working at an emergency veterinary practice for a year, Dr. Oikawa moved to the US and completed a PhD program in Comparative Biomedical Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2021. As a postdoctoral researcher mentored by an established clinician-scientist Dr. Gillian McLellan, Dr. Oikawa works on research projects interrogating pathobiology of glaucoma using unique spontaneous animal models. His research program during PhD graduate studies focused on better understanding cellular and molecular pathobiology of the optic nerve head in these spontaneous large animal models of glaucoma, through which he acquired advanced laboratory skillsets and knowledge in molecular biology, in vivo imaging, electrophysiology and ocular pathology as well as bioinformatics to analyze large omics datasets. Dr. Oikawa has recently received a prestigious Career Starter Research Grant as a primary investigator from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation to study the role of microglia in glaucoma. His long-term goal is to become an independent veterinary clinician-scientist with a sustainable research program focusing on glaucoma, using translationally-relevant, pre-clinical animal models to provide novel insights into pathological mechanisms, and provide foundation for the development of new treatments.