Developmental biologist Luis F. Parada uses genetically engineered mouse models to study neurofibromatosis, brain tumors, cancer stem cells, and tumor progression.
The Parada lab uses genetically engineered mouse models to recapitulate and study human disease. These mouse strains are used to understand the natural history of tumors of the nervous system, including glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST), neurofibromas, and other diseases associated with neurofibromatosis (NF1). We seek to develop mouse cancer models based on concrete hypotheses and to rapidly transfer findings for validation in human cancer samples.
Biography
Luis F. Parada obtained a BS from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Biology from MIT, identifying oncogenes in human cancer. He was a Damon Runyon and Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow at the Pasteur Institute. He headed the Molecular Embryology Section at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, MD from 1988 to 1994 when he moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas as the inaugurating Diana and Richard C. Strauss Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology and was Director of the Kent Waldrep Foundation Center for Basic Neuroscience Research. In 2015, Dr. Parada moved his laboratory to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to assume leadership of the interdisciplinary Brain Tumor Center.
Distinctions:
Fellow, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy (2023)
Member, National Academy of Sciences (2011)
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009)
Member, National Academy of Medicine - Former Institute of Medicine (2007)
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007)
The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Sciences of Texas (TAMEST) (2007)
Member, Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives (2003)
Professor, American Cancer Society Research (2002)
