Lena Pernas

Lena Pernas is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics. She is also a Max Planck Research Affiliate at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing. Her research focuses on host-pathogen interactions, particularly how Toxoplasma gondii manipulates host cellular metabolism and organelle dynamics to establish infection.

• 2023–present: Assistant Professor, UCLA
• 2019–2023: Max Planck Research Group Leader, Cologne, Germany
• 2014–2018: Life Science Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Pernas earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Stanford University (2008–2013) and a B.S. in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics from UCLA (2004–2008). Her work bridges mitochondrial biology, metabolic immunity, and infectious disease mechanisms.

Her research has defined how host mitochondria compete with Toxoplasma gondii for fatty acids, using mitochondrial fusion to restrict pathogen growth. She investigates broader questions about how organelles sense and respond to pathogens metabolically, aiming to identify therapeutic targets in pathogen metabolic dependencies.

Selected scientific awards include the ERC Starting Grant (MITOvTOXO), DFG Research Training Grant RTG2550, and Life Science Research Foundation Simons Postdoctoral Fellowship. Her lab trains graduate students and postdocs in experimental parasitology, cell biology, and metabolic research.

Dr. Pernas leads collaborative projects on metabolic immunity, mitochondrial stress responses, and pathogen metabolic manipulation, with funding from the European Research Council and German Research Foundation.