Taking a new approach to understanding our immune defenses against microbial invaders
October 15, 2024 | Life Sciences
Today, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation announced that Lena Pernas – UCLA assistant professor of microbiology, immunology & molecular genetics – is among 20 early-career scientists to be named a 2024 Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering.
Fellows are selected from a highly competitive pool of the nation’s most promising early-career professors. According to the Packard Foundation, their fellows “take a creative approach to their research, dare to think big, and follow new ideas wherever they lead.” Over a period of five years, each Packard Fellow will receive $875,000 to support their innovative research.
Pernas’ research
Pernas takes a new approach to understanding our cells’ defenses against microbial invaders. Rather than assuming that cells passively allow microbial parasites to invade and hijack their internal machinery, she wants to see how the machinery–aka “organelles”–might actually play a defensive role.
Research in Pernas’ lab has already shown that when cells are infected with the human parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, certain organelles (called mitochondria) fuse to limit a key resource that this parasite needs to grow.
Using Toxoplasma to study how organelles respond to infection, her lab will define the specific signals that mitochondria use to sense and respond to Toxoplasma. They will also study other organelles and their roles in combating infection.
The Packard Fellowship recognizes Pernas as a future leader whose early research shows potential for revolutionizing our scientific understanding of how the body defends itself against infection.
Packard Fellows have gone on to receive additional awards and honors, including Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics, Fields Medals, Alan T. Waterman Awards, Breakthrough Prizes and elections to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
