About

Andras Perl is a physician scientist who has identified novel biochemical and genetic pathways in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus. He received his MD and PhD from Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary. He held faculty positions at Semmelweis, the University of Rochester, and the State University of New York (SUNY) in Buffalo and Syracuse. He has been Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology since 1997, Chief of Rheumatology since 2001, and SUNY Distinguished Professor since 2017.He has given served as Visiting Professors at numerous academic institutions in the United States, Europe, and China. His laboratory discovered mitochondrial hyperpolarization (MHP), a source of mitochondrial oxidative stress and a checkpoint of T-cell activation and death signal processing. His team has identified disease susceptibility genes that regulate mitochondrial homeostasis, autophagy, activation of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, and cell death signal processing in mouse models and patients with autoimmunity, cancer, metabolic diseases. He has advanced successfully his original basic scientific findings to patient care by designing investigator-initiated clinical trials funded by the National Institutes of Health. He has accomplished clinical trials in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus showing remarkable therapeutic efficacy of mTOR blockade with N-acetylcysteine or sirolimus. In parallel, Dr. Perl has developed and led high profile training programs for MD/PhD students, postdoctoral and rheumatology fellows while running a nationally recognized Lupus Center and a Rheumatology referral clinical center. He has published over 200 original peer-reviewed papers in leading medical and scientific journals, authored chapters in rheumatology and immunology textbooks, trained over 70 MD/PhD and PhD students and postdoctoral and rheumatology fellows. His laboratory has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1996. He has been listed among the Best Doctors in America since 2007.