Brian Parks

Brian W. Parks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of Virginia's College at Wise and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His postdoctoral research at UCLA with Dr. Jake Lusis focused on systems genetics approaches to study diet-genetics interactions in metabolic diseases.

His research lab investigates how genetics and diet interact to contribute to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Key projects include molecular characterization of the Agpat5 gene, network-based prioritization of human lipid GWAS loci, and epistatic interactions in complex traits. The lab employs interdisciplinary methods spanning systems genetics, computational biology, and molecular biology.

Education: B.S., University of Virginia’s College at Wise (2002); Ph.D., University of Alabama, Birmingham (2008).

Lab members include graduate students, undergraduates, and postdoctoral fellows working on projects ranging from lipid metabolism to computational network analysis. The lab emphasizes training the next generation of researchers through collaborative, interdisciplinary work.