David Perlin, Ph.D. is the founding Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President for the Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation. He is a highly accomplished senior administrator and biomedical researcher focused on combatting opportunistic infections in cancer, transplant and other high-risk patients. Dr. Perlin was most recently Executive Director and Professor at the Rutgers University, New Jersey Medical School where he led the 77-year old Public Health Research Institute (PHRI), a center for the study of infectious diseases. In the past 12 years, he helped PHRI attract more than $230 million in grant support and develop a robust portfolio of patents and licenses resulting in FDA-approved products. Dr. Perlin’s research emphasizes studies to diagnose and overcome drug-resistant fungal and bacterial infections in high-risk patients, and he is widely regarded as a global leader in antifungal drug resistance, molecular diagnostics and antifungal drug development. He has published more than 250 papers and book chapters, and has co-authored two books. His laboratory is supported by multiple grants from the NIH, CDC, Pharma and biopharma sectors.