Lena Pernas

Lena Pernas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics (MIMG) at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine. Her research bridges mitochondrial biology with infectious disease mechanisms, focusing on host-pathogen metabolic interactions.

• Key Research Themes:
  • Mitochondrial dynamics in infection contexts
  • Metabolic regulation of pathogen growth
  • Organelle-pathogen physical interactions
  • Immune-metabolic crosstalk
• Notable Contributions:
  • Discovered how mitochondria restrict Toxoplasma gondii through fatty acid limitation
  Characterized host mitochondrial association mechanisms in parasitic infections
• Explored mitochondrial outer membrane shedding as stress response
• Elucidated glutamine's role in cholesterol synthesis during infection

Publications Trends (2010-2025): 15 recent works reveal a trajectory from fundamental mitochondrial physiology (2014-2016) to infection-specific metabolic interactions (2018-2021), with recent expansions into broader implications of mitochondrial biology in immunity and nutrition. Key journals include Nature, Cell Metabolism, and PLoS Biology.

Conceptual Networks demonstrate expertise in:

• Toxoplasma pathogenesis
• Mitochondrial dynamics
• Vacuolar interactions
• Host-pathogen metabolic competition
• Lipid droplet regulation