Elizabeth Parks, PhD

Associate Professor
Clinical Nutrition, Internal Medicine

Contact Information

UT Southwestern Medical Center
5323 Harry Hines Boulevard
Dallas, Texas 75390

Office Phone: 214-648-1525
Office Fax: 214-648-1514

elizabeth.parks@utsouthwestern.edu

Biography

Dr. Parks received her BS in Exercise Physiology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She then became a research assistant, working on the prevention of atherosclerosis and mechanisms of artery plaque reversal in the Department of Pathology at the University of Washington in Seattle. Moving in 1991 to the University of California, Davis for graduate school, she received her PhD in 1995 from the Department of Nutrition and then became a postdoctoral fellow at Berkeley and at UC San Francisco in the laboratory of Marc Hellerstein, an expert in the study of human metabolism with methods such as gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy and mathematical modeling.

In 1999, she became an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. Her laboratory investigated how healthy humans adjusted to the replacement of dietary fat with carbohydrate and the related mechanisms of fatty liver development in obesity.

Following promotion and tenure at Minnesota, Dr. Parks moved to UT Southwestern. Her laboratory is investigating the impact of dietary macronutrients on liver triglyceride accrual and the effect of the taste of fat in the diet to modulate intestinal and liver metabolism.

Education

Graduate SchoolUniversity of California-Davis (1995)

Research Interests

Cholesterol synthesis
De novo synthesis of fatty acids
Liver and intestinal physiology
Obesity and fatty liver
Triglyceride metabolism

Publications

Featured
Acute impact of sugars on fatty acid synthesis.

Parks EJ, Skogen LA, Timlin MT, Dingfelder C , J of Nutrition , 2008; (138):1039-1046

Featured
Carbohydrate-induced hypertriaclglycerolemia: historical perspective and review of biological mechanisms.

Parks EJ, Hellerstein MK. , Amer J Clin Nutr , 2000; (71):412-33

Postprandial changes in plasma acylcarnitine concentrations as markers of fatty acid flux in metabolic syndrome

Ramos-Roman MA, Sweetman L, Valdez MJ, Parks Elizabeth J , Metabolism, Clinical and Experimental , 2011; (Aug 4)

Protocol for the measurement of fatty acid and glycerol turnover in vivo in baboons

Bastarrachea RA, Veron SM, Vaidyanathan V, Garcia-Forey M, Voruganti VS, Higgins PB, Parks EJ , J Lipid Research , 2011; (52(6)):1272-1280

Dynamics of fat absorption and impact of sham feeding on postprandial lipema

Chavez-Jauregui RN, Mattes RD, Parks EJ , Gastroenterology , 2010; (139(5)):1538-1548

Reduced insulin-mediated inhibition of VLDL secretion upon pharmacological activation of the liver X receptor in mice

Grefhorst A, Parks EJ , J Lipid Research , 2009; (50):1374-1383

Recent advances in liver triacylglycerol and fatty acid metabolism using stable isotope labeling technique

Parks EJ, Hellerstein MK , J Lipid Research , 2006; (47):1651-1660

Sources of fatty acids contributing to hepatic steatosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Donnelly KL, Smith CI, Schwarzenberg SJ, Jessurun J, Boldt MD, Parks EJ. , J Clin Invest , 2005; (115(5)):1343-1351

Effects of a low-fat diet on VLDL-triglyceride assembly, production and clearance.

Parks EJ, Krauss RM, Christiansen MP, Neese RA, Hellerstein MK. , J Clin Invest , 1999; (104(8)):1087-1096

Inhibition of oxidation of human-low-density lipoprotein by phenolic substances in red wine.

Frankel EN, Kanner J, German JB, Parks E, Kinsella JE. , Lancet , 1993; (341):454-457

Honors/Awards

UT Southwestern Established Investigator Award

(2009)

Fellow, The Obesity Society

(2007)

McFarland Teaching Award, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Given for excellence in teaching (2005)

Ruth Pike Lectureship

Endowed Lectureship in the Department of Nutrition at Penn State (2002)

Dannon Nutrition Leadership Institute

Leadership training (2001)

Future Leaders Award

Merit Award from the International Life Sciences Institute (2000)

Fellow, American Heart Association

(1999)

Professional Associations/Affiliations

Fellow, The Obesity Society

(2007)

Fellow, American Heart Association

(1999)

American Diabetes Association (ADA)

(1996)

AmericanSociety for Nutrition

(1995)