Welcome to the Perlstein Lab
Iron-sulfur clusters are ancient, essential cofactors that power genome maintenance, metabolism, and cellular life. The Perlstein Lab investigates the fundamental biochemistry of how cells build and deliver these metallocofactors — and how disruption or hijacking of this system impacts human health and disease.
Our Research
We focus on the Cytosolic Iron-Sulfur Cluster Assembly (CIA) pathway, uncovering the molecular rules that govern how cells identify and supply FeS cofactors to their protein clients. A defining discovery in this area — a conserved C-terminal tripeptide that serves as a CIA recognition signal — has opened new frontiers, including the emerging question of how viruses exploit host CIA machinery to fuel their own replication. Our lab takes an integrative approach, combining enzyme kinetics, yeast genetics, protein-protein interaction analysis, fluorescence-based assays, high-throughput screening, and mass spectrometry collaborations to tackle these questions from multiple angles.
Learn more about our research →
Training & Community
Training scientists through both research and teaching is central to everything we do in the Perlstein Lab. We are proud of the diverse paths our alumni pursue — from Anastasiya Buzuk, now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Chemistry, to Christina Mole at New England BioLabs, and Wen Yi Low as teaching faculty at the University of Chicago.