Dr. Leslie V. Parise, PhD has been appointed Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics effective September 2006.
Dr. Parise comes to the position from our own Department of Pharmacology where she served as Vice Chair, and where she will maintain a joint appointment. Dr. Parise is a well-recognized leader in cardiovascular and cancer research, especially in area of blood platelets, which cause heart attacks, stroke and sickle cell disease. Her research is specifically focused on the structure and function of adhesion receptors and associated proteins as well as signal transduction pathways that contribute to cardiovascular disease and cancer cell metastases. Dr. Parise received her undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Biology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1976 and her PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 1982. Her postdoctoral studies were at the Gladstone Foundation/UCSF. She became an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 1988, was appointed full professor in 1999 and Vice-Chair of Pharmacology in 2002 before being appointed Chair of our department. Dr. Parise serves on several editorial boards including The Journal of Cell Biology and Blood and has participated in numerous study sections including those for NIH, American Heart Association and the California Breast Cancer Research Program.