About Me

About Me

Education:

    B.S. in Chemistry from Furman University

    Ph. D. in Organic Chemistry from California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

    Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Experience:

    Biology/chemistry teacher at Arlington Catholic High School in Boston, MA

    Chemistry/physical science teacher at Irmo High School (also served as the Science Department Chair for three years)

    Magnet Director at Spring Valley High School beginning in 2010

Research Experience:

    Undergraduate research at Furman University in synthetic chemistry/biochemistry

    Graduate research at Caltech with Dr. Peter Dervan; Thesis: "Sequence-Specific Recognition of DNA by Pyrrole-Imidazole Hairpin Polyamides" 

    Post-Doctoral Research at MIT with Dr. Robert Langer; DNA delivery system 

Publications*:

1.  Mrksich, M., Parks, M.E. and Dervan, P.B. (1994).  Hairpin Peptide Motif - a New Class of Oligopeptides for Sequence-Specific Recognition in the Minor Groove of Double-Helical DNA.  Journal of the American Chemical Society. 116, 7983-7988.

2.  Cho, J.Y., Parks, M.E. and Dervan, P.B. (1995) Cyclic Polyamides for Recognition in the Minor-Groove of DNA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 92, 10389-10392.

3.  Parks, M.E., Baird, E.E. and Dervan, P.B. (1996) Recognition of 5'-(A,T)GG(A,T)(2)-3' sequences in the minor groove of DNA by hairpin polyamides.  Journal of the American Chemical Society, 118, 6153-6159.

4.  Parks, M.E., Baird, E.E. and Dervan, P.B. (1996) Optimization of the hairpin polyamide design for recognition of the minor groove of DNA. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 118, 6147-6152.

5.  Parks, M.E. and Dervan, P.B. (1996) Simultaneous binding of a polyamide dimer and an oligonucleotide in the minor and major grooves of DNA. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry, 4, 1045-1050.

*My maiden name was Michelle E. Parks.

Personal Info:

I am happily married and have two boys.  We love to camp, hike, and spend time outdoors as a family.  In fact, we did the Table Rock trail (~7 miles RT, ~2,000 ft elevation gain) when our boys were only 4 and 8 years old!  I also enjoy running, swimming, cooking, and gardening.