He is known for developing a number of techniques for used in genetic research with Drosophila melanogaster, as well as specific substantive contributions to signal transduction, developmental biology and physiology.
From 1983 to 1986 Perrimon was a postdoctoral researcher with Anthony Mahowald[3][4][5][6] at Case Western Reserve University, and in 1986 at the age of 27 he accepted an appointment as faculty at Harvard Medical School.
He is currently the James Stillman Professor of Developmental Biology in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.
[13][14][15] His lab has pioneered high-throughput whole-genome RNAi screening to interrogate systematically the function of all fly genes in various cell-based assays.
Perrimon was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in April 2013,[18][25] after naturalizing as an American citizen.