Philip West, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor, Board Member www.NLET.org
Phillip West, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, where he leads cutting-edge research on the intersection of mitochondrial biology and immune function. His work focuses on how mitochondria regulate innate immune and inflammatory responses and how disruptions in these processes contribute to genetic disorders, aging-related diseases, heart failure, cancer, and other complex conditions. Dr. West’s lab has made significant contributions to understanding mitochondrial stress signaling—especially the mtDNA-cGAS-STING pathway—and its impact on disease-promoting metabolic and immune rewiring. With a Ph.D. in Immunobiology from Yale University and postdoctoral training at the Yale School of Medicine, he brings deep expertise in immunology, cell biology, and translational research to his academic leadership and scientific collaborations.
Lena Pernas, Ph.D.
My research group at UCLA is developing a novel dimension to the study of host-pathogen interactions, which traditionally studies how pathogens subvert cellular processes, or how host immune effector functions inactivate pathogens. We instead study how organellar function and metabolism are rewired to respond to and defend cells and organisms against pathogens. We use the human parasite Toxoplasma gondii as a model pathogen because, unlike for other microbes, we now know the factors that mediate contact and communication between host mitochondria and Toxoplasma. Our previous work has challenged the mainstream thinking of mitochondria as being hijacked by pathogens to organelles that orchestrate defense responses against pathogens. Our ongoing and future work has the potential to change our fundamental understanding of cell biology and could revolutionize how we treat infectious diseases.