Control and Regulation of Stem Cells with Luis F. Parada Interviewed by Catherine Cormier,

Luis F. Parada grew up in Bogota, Colombia. He obtained a BS from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Biology... » More

Luis F. Parada grew up in Bogota, Colombia. He obtained a BS 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. From 1988 to 1994, he headed the Molecular Embryology Section at the NCI in Frederick, Maryland. His work there centered on the identification and characterization of Trk receptor tyrosine kinases as physiological neurotrophin receptors. In 1994 Dr. Parada moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas as inaugurating Director of the Center for Developmental Biology. During his time in Dallas, Dr. Parada has continued his studies of nerve cell survival and regeneration and has renewed his attention on cancer with emphasis on the nervous system. His laboratory uses mouse models to study Neurofibromatosis, cancers of the nervous system, neural development and spinal cord injury. Dr. Parada is Chairman of the Department of Developmental Biology and holds the Diana and Richard C. Strauss Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology, is Director of the Kent Waldrep Foundation Center for Basic Neuroscience Research, and is an American Cancer Society Professor. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine – National Academy of Sciences.
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