Dan-Ning Hu
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
Department of Ophthalmology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
Age-related macular degeneration
Central serous retinopathy
In vitro study
Myopia
Ocular melanocytes
Ocular pigment cells
Proliferative vitreoretinopathy
Retinitis pigmentosa
Uveal melanoma
Uveitis
Prof. Dan-Ning Hu was born on December 25, 1936, in Shanghai. He serves as a professor of ophthalmology at New York Medical College and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the director of the Organ Culture Center at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.
He attended and graduated from the Medical Department of Shanghai First Medical College from 1952 to 1955. In 1981, after returning from collaborative research in the United States, he became the director of the Zhabei Eye Hospital, professor at Shanghai Railway Medical College, director of the Ophthalmology and Medical Genetics Teaching and Research Group, vice president of the Chinese Genetic Medicine Center (Shanghai), and director of the Genetic Counseling and Eugenics Department. He has also been an honorary professor, visiting professor, and consultant professor in ophthalmology at several universities, including Fudan University, Nanjing University, Shanghai Tongji University Medical College, and Shandong University. Additionally, he served as the director of the Myopia Research Institute at the Ministry of Health.
He has also served as a research consultant for pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Merck, Allergan, etc.
Prof. Hu's major research achievements include the establishment of methods for the isolation and culture of choroidal and conjunctival melanocytes and iris pigment epithelial cells, as well as the establishment of an eye cell bank. He researched the etiology, epidemiology, and drug treatment of ocular melanoma and resolved the long-standing debate on the relationship between ocular melanoma and sunlight. He also conducted research on the etiology, pathogenesis, genetics, and epigenetic regulations of myopia and age-related macular degeneration.
In translational medicine, Prof. Hu conducted studies on the transplantation of cultured skin melanocytes for the treatment of vitiligo, oral retinoid acid therapy for proliferative vitreoretinopathy, and transplantation of iris pigment epithelial cells for the treatment of retinal diseases.
He has published over 300 papers, including 147 in SCI journals. He has authored several books on ophthalmic genetics and myopia and co-authored nine international ophthalmology monographs. Prof. Hu has received numerous research grants and awards, including the 2009 National Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Prize) for clinical research and application of simple myopia prevention.
He has been invited to give academic lectures at institutions such as the National Eye Institute, Harvard University, and Yale University.
He has served as an executive director of the International Society of Ophthalmic Genetics, president of the International Society for Ocular Melanocyte Research, co-founder and executive committee member of the Chinese Medical Genetics Society, national committee member of the Chinese Ophthalmological Society, and honorary chairman for life of the Overseas Chinese Eye and Vision Science Research Association. He has also served as editor-in-chief, editorial board member, and reviewer of several academic journals.
