Luis F. Parada, Ph.D.Scientific Advisor
Professor and Chairman, Department of Developmental Biology
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Luis Parada's research integrates the fields of molecular genetics, embryonic development and signal transduction. His studies have provided critical insights into brain development and cancer biology, and have led to the identification of molecules that inhibit nerve regeneration after injury. His laboratory uses mouse models to study Neurofibromatosis, cancers of the nervous system, neural development and spinal cord injury.
Dr. Parada’s work on cancer biology has, unexpectedly, led him to the study of autism spectrum disorders. He focuses on a gene called Pten, which is known to suppress cancers and recently implicated in some cases of autism when mutated. By deleting Pten in certain parts of the mouse brain, Dr. Parada was able to recreate deficits in social interaction and brain abnormalities that are reminiscent of autism.
Dr. Parada obtained a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Biology from MIT in 1985 identifying oncogenes in human cancer. He was a Damon Runyon and later Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow at the Pasteur Institute. He was head of the Molecular Embryology Section in the Mammalian Genetics Laboratory of the National Cancer Institute before joining UT Southwestern in 1994.
Dr. Parada serves on the National Advisory Council of the National Institutes for Neurological Disorders & Strokes, the Pews Scholars Foundation Advisory Board and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has received numerous honors, including membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Parada currently holds the Diana K. and Richard C. Strauss Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology and the Southwestern Ball Distinguished Chair in Nerve Regeneration Research. He also is director of the Kent Waldrep Center for Basic Research on Nerve Growth and Regeneration.
Dr. Parada’s work on cancer biology has, unexpectedly, led him to the study of autism spectrum disorders. He focuses on a gene called Pten, which is known to suppress cancers and recently implicated in some cases of autism when mutated. By deleting Pten in certain parts of the mouse brain, Dr. Parada was able to recreate deficits in social interaction and brain abnormalities that are reminiscent of autism.
Dr. Parada obtained a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Biology from MIT in 1985 identifying oncogenes in human cancer. He was a Damon Runyon and later Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow at the Pasteur Institute. He was head of the Molecular Embryology Section in the Mammalian Genetics Laboratory of the National Cancer Institute before joining UT Southwestern in 1994.
Dr. Parada serves on the National Advisory Council of the National Institutes for Neurological Disorders & Strokes, the Pews Scholars Foundation Advisory Board and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has received numerous honors, including membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Parada currently holds the Diana K. and Richard C. Strauss Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology and the Southwestern Ball Distinguished Chair in Nerve Regeneration Research. He also is director of the Kent Waldrep Center for Basic Research on Nerve Growth and Regeneration.
