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Professor David S. Perlin
Chairman of Scientific Board
David S. Perlin Ph.D. has been the Scientific Director of Public Health Research Institute since 1992, and lately President. He has helped advance PHRI's research agenda including the Institute's emergence of as one of the foremost tuberculosis research organizations in the world and the development of the International Center for Public Health as a specialized center for infectious diseases research.
Dr. Perlin's lab studies the molecular basis for clinical resistance to antifungal drugs and helps develop rapid diagnostic approaches for fungal pathogens, agents of bioterrorism, and new disease agents like the SARS coronavirus. Since the anthrax outbreak in October 2001, Dr. Perlin has been widely outspoken about the public health response to the crisis and the need for research and improved infrastructure.
He has been a regular commentator on radio and television, lectures on biodefense issues, has published numerous letters in the New York Times and other media outlets, and wrote one of the primary scientific critiques of the outbreak for the U.S. Senate. Dr. Perlin is a member of the Executive Committee of the Northeast Biodefense Center, a research-driven consortium of 30+ academic and government institutions in New York , New Jersey and Connecticut. He regularly serves on NIH review panels, is on the editorial board of a number of biomedical research journals, and is a member of Senator Jon Corzine's New Jersey Healthcare Taskforce.
Dr. Perlin obtained an A.B degree from Brandeis University (1976) and a Ph.D. from Cornell University (1980). He pursued postdoctoral studies in the Department of Human Genetics at the Yale University School of Medicine (1980-1982) and in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine (1983-1985). He joined the Public Health Research Institute in fall 1985. Information about Dr. Perlin's research program is found in the Research Section of the PHRI web site. Dr. Perlin is a member of the PHRI Executive and Strategic Planning Committees.