Akiko Iwasaki (born in 1970) is a Professor of Department of Immunobiology and Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale University. She is also a Medical Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Akiko was born and raised in Iga, Japan. After High School she moved to Toronto, Canada where she attended the University of Toronto. She had hopes of becoming a mathematician or physicist like her father. However, her interests changed after taking an immunology class. Currently, her research interests include innate immunity, autophagy, inflammasomes, sexually transmitted infections, herpes simplex virus, human papillomavirus, respiratory virus infections, influenza infection, T cell immunity, and commensal bacteria.