David Perlman, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Contact Information

Dr. Perlman received his B.A. in biology from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1989. After college he worked as a research assistant in the lab of Dr. Radovan Zak at the University of Chicago, working mainly on projects relating to the recovery from injury of skeletal and cardiac muscle. He subsequently returned to Minnesota to attend medical school and received his M.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1996. After completing his residency in Internal Medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center, he entered the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship program at the U of MN. After the first year of clinical training, Dr. Perlman joined Dr. Peter Bitterman’s lab. Dr. Perlman is now a junior faculty member in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at the University and he continues to work in Dr. Bitterman’s lab. His current research centers mainly on the translational control of apoptosis and how it applies to the clinical problem of pulmonary fibrosis. The main goal of his project is the identification of molecules critical to the pathobiology of pulmonary fibrosis that may be amenable to therapeutic intervention.

Grant Support:

• 2003-2008 NIH K08-HL074058-02
  "Indentifying Molecular Targets for Anti-Fibrotic Therapy"
  Principal Investigator
• 2002-2003 American Lung Association Research Fellowship Training Award
  "The Role of Internal Ribosomal Entry Site-Mediated Translation in the Control of Apoptosis"
  Principal Investigator

Selected Recent Publications

Stewart AF, Camoretti-Mercado B, Perlman D, Gupta M, Jakovic S, Zak R.  Structural and phylogenetic analysis of the chicken ventricular myosin heavy chain rod.  J Mol Evol 1991; 33(4):357-66

Perlman, DM.  Enhancing Medical Care at the End of Life.  Fellow Reporter. Vol. 7, No. 5, July 2002

Li S, Takasu T, Perlman DM, Peterson MS, Burrichter D, Avdulov S, Bitterman PB, Polunovsky VA. Translation factor eIF4E rescues cells from Myc-dependent apoptosis by inhibiting cytochrome c release. J Biol Chem,  2003;278:3015-22.

Li S,  Perlman DM, Peterson MS, Burrichter D, Avdulov S, Polunovsky VA, Bitterman PB. Translation initiation factor 4E blocks endoplasmic reticulum-mediated apoptosis. J Biol Chem,  2004;279:21312-7 .

Avdulov S, Li S, Michalek V, Burrichter D, Peterson M, Perlman DM, Manivel JC, Sonenberg N, Yee D, Bitterman PB,  Polunovsky VA. Activation of translation complex eIF4F is essential for the genesis and maintenance of the malignant phenotype in human mammary epithelial cells. Cancer Cell, 2004; 5: 553-563.

Larsson O, Perlman DM, Fan D, Reilly CS, Peterson M, Dahlgren C, Liang Z, Li S, Polunovsky VA, Wahlestedt C, Bitterman PB.  Apoptosis resistance downstream of eIF4E: posttranscriptional activation of an anti-apoptotic transcript carrying a consensus hairpin structure.  Nucleic Acids Res.   34(16): 4375-86, 2006.

Xia H, Diebold D, Nho RS, Perlman D, Kahm J, Kleidon J, Avdulor A, Peterson M, Bitterman P, Henke CA.  Pathological integrin signaling enhances proliferation of primary lung fibroblasts  from patients' idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. 2008,  J Clin Invest, accepted.

Last updated 5/6/2008