Background

Dr. Parks received his PhD in Anatomy from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1982 and did postdoctoral training in cancer biology at Michigan State University from 1982 to 1985 and in extracellular matrix and lung biology at Washington University from 1985 to1986.
In 1986 Dr. Parks was appointed to faculty in the Departments of Medicine (Dermatology) and Cell Biology and Physiology at Washington University, and in 2000 he was promoted to full Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics (Allergy and Pulmonary Medicine), Cell Biology & Physiology, and Medicine. While at Washington University, Dr. Parks established and administered a large Morphology Core, directed the Developmental Lung Biology Program, which supported scientific cores, educational events, symposia, and fellowships, and was the Principal Investigator of an NIAMS Program Project Grant on basic skin biology.

In 2004, Dr. Parks relocated to the University of Washington and soon thereafter established the Center for Lung Biology at the South Lake Union. Among his national responsibilities, Dr. Parks is the recent President of the American Society for Matrix Biology, an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Cell & Molecular Respiratory Biology, chair of the NIH Lung Injury, Repair, and Remodeling (LIRR) Study Section, and on the board of trustees of the Puget Sound Blood Center. In the past, he chaired the Cell Structure and Metastasis Committee of the American Cancer Society, chaired two Gordon Research Conferences, and served on or chaired several study sections.

Research Focus

Research in our lab focuses on the role of specific matrix
metalloproteinases(MMP) in immunity and tissue repair and on the
control of elastin production in lung and vascular tissue. We have determined that MMPs serve distinct, non-overlapping functions in
several distinct processes of innate immunity, such as the activation
state of neutrophils and macrophages. Our goal is to understand mechanism, that is, to identify the physiologic protein substrates of individual MMPs whose cleavage regulates specific processes, such as neutrophil recruitment, cell migration, etc. All project include a hefty use of mouse models, including knock strains we have developed, and incorporate a variety of cellular, molecular, biochemical, and systems approaches.

Relevant Publications

Li Q, PW Park, CL Wilson, WC Parks. 2002. Matrilysin shedding of syndecan-1 regulates chemokine mobilization and transepithelial efflux of neutrophils in acute lung injury. Cell 111:635-646.

Parks WC, CW Wilson, YS Lopéz-Boado. 2004. Matrix metalloproteinases as modulators of inflammation and innate immunity. Nat Rev Immunol 4:617-629.

Ra HJ, WC Parks. 2007. Control of matrix metalloproteinase catalytic activity. Matrix Biol 26:587-596.

Gill SE, WC Parks. 2008. Metalloproteinases and their inhibitors: regulators of wound healing. Int J Biochem Cell Biol 40:1334-47.

Kim J, Swee M, WC Parks. 2009. Cytosolic SYT/SS18 isoforms are actin-associated proteins that function in matrix-specific adhesion. PLoSOne 4:e6455.

Ra HJ, S Harju-Baker, F Zhang, RJ Lindardt, CL Wilson, WC Parks. 2009. Regulation of matrilysin (mmp-7) zymogen activation and substrate-specific activity by sulfated glycosaminoglycans. J Biol Chem 284:27924-27932.

Chen P, WC Parks. 2009. Role of matrix metalloproteinases in epithelial migration. J Cell Biochem 108:1233-43

Chen P, LE Abacheri, ST Nadler, Y Wang, Q Li, WC Parks. 2009. Matrilysin shedding of syndecan-1 facilitates re-epithelialization by altering b1 integrin activation. PLoSOne 4:e6565.

Manicone AM, TP Birkland, Y Yang, T Betsuyaku, J Lohi, SJ Skerrett, WC Parks. 2009. Epilysin (MMP28) restrains early macrophage recruitment in Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia. J Immunol 182:3866-3876.

Gill SE, I Huizar, EM Bench, Y Wang, R Khokha, WC Parks. 2010. Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 3 (TIMP3) regulates resolution of inflammation following acute lung injury. Am J Pathol 176:64-73.

Active Funding