Assistant Professor of Nutritional Sciences
B.S. 2002, University of Virginia’s College at Wise
Ph.D. 2008, University of Alabama, Birmingham
Contact:
bparks3@wisc.edu
Web Site:
https://parkslab.nutrisci.wisc.edu/
Research Interests:
Gene-diet interactions, obesity, diabetes, and systems genetics
Research Summary:
The Parks Lab is focused on addressing the question of how genetics and diet interact together to contribute to common metabolic diseases, such as obesity and diabetes. Through the use of large-scale integrative genetic studies in the mouse we have identified several candidate genes that mediate gene-diet interactions. Current work is focused on a novel candidate drug target, Agpat5, which improves common symptoms of obesity and diabetes. In addition to this work we have a strong interest in the development of systems genetics approaches for dissecting biological pathways and networks.
Representative publications:
Votava JA, Parks BW. Cross-species data integration to prioritize causal genes in lipid metabolism. Curr Opin Lipidol. 2021 Apr 1;32(2):141-146. doi: 10.1097/MOL.0000000000000742. Review. PubMed PMID: 33651746; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8011808.
Li Z, Votava JA, Zajac GJM, Nguyen JN, Leyva Jaimes FB, Ly SM, Brinkman JA, De Giorgi M, Kaul S, Green CL, St Clair SL, Belisle SL, Rios JM, Nelson DW, Sorci-Thomas MG, Lagor WR, Lamming DW, Eric Yen CL, Parks BW. Integrating Mouse and Human Genetic Data to Move beyond GWAS and Identify Causal Genes in Cholesterol Metabolism. Cell Metab. 2020 Apr 7;31(4):741-754.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.02.015. Epub 2020 Mar 19. PubMed PMID: 32197071; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7184639.
Miller KN, Clark JP, Martin SA, Howell PR, Burhans MS, Haws SA, Johnson NB, Rhoads TW, Pavelec DM, Eliceiri KW, Roopra AS, Ntambi JM, Denu JM, Parks BW, Anderson RM. PGC-1a integrates a metabolism and growth network linked to caloric restriction. Aging Cell. 2019 Oct;18(5):e12999. doi: 10.1111/acel.12999. Epub 2019 Jul 3. PubMed PMID: 31267675; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6718593.
NCBI Bibliography Page: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/12Urag8Kg5k5t/bibliography/public/