Dr. Mark S. Parcells received his bachelor's and doctoral degrees in Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware in 1984 and 1994, respectively. Between these degrees he worked as a research technician at the DuPont Company in immunodiagnostic, signal transduction and immuno-pharmacology laboratories. Following his graduate degree in Biology, Dr. Parcells remained in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Delaware.

           In 1996, Dr. Parcells was appointed an Assistant Professor of Molecular Virology in the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science at the University of Arkansas. While at Arkansas, Dr. Parcells was promoted to Associate Professor in 2001, and was appointed a faculty member in the interdisciplinary Cellular and Molecular Biology (CEMB) Program in addition to the Department of Poultry Science. Dr. Parcells returned to the University of Delaware in August 2004 as an Associate Professor of Avian Molecular Virology in the Animal and Food Sciences Department.

           Dr. Parcells' research career has been focused on an economically important disease of poultry called Marek's disease. Marek's disease is a rapidly-induced T-cell lymphoma of chickens that is caused by a highly transmissible herpes virus, Marek's disease virus (MDV). MDV infects chicken white blood cells and can transform a subset of these cells (T-cells) causing lymphocyte tumors (lymphomas). In addition to being an economically-important agent, MDV serves as an attractive model for studying how viruses can induce lymphomas, cancers that comprise a significant percentage of human malignancies. MDV also is a pathogen that is currently controlled by vaccination, making it an ideal model for studying cancer immunotherapy. Since the widespread use of vaccination to control Marek's disease, field strains of MDV have evolved that overcome vaccine-induced protection.

          Current MDV projects in the Parcells' laboratory are focused on understanding the underlying mechanisms of MDV evolution of virulence. In this work, Dr. Parcells has identified two genetic loci that appear to under selection in the MDV genome. The study of these MDV genes, as well as the functional study of other MDV genes involved in pathogenicity is the main focus of the Parcells lab. Dr. Parcells currently teaches courses in signal transduction, virology and graduate seminar.

Courses

• ANSC 435/635 - Animal Virology
• ANSC 865/FOSC 665 - Seminar

SIGNIFICANT PAPERS:

• Anobile, J., V. Arumugaswami, D. Downs, K. Czymmeck, M. S. Parcells and C. J. Schmidt. 2006.  Nuclear Localization and Dynamic Properties of the Marek's Disease Virus Oncogene Products Meq and Meq/vIL8.  J. Virool 80:1160-1166.

• Trapp, S, Parcells, MS, Kamil, JP, Schumacher, D, Tischer, BK, Kumar, PM, Nair, VK, and Osterrieder, N. 2006. A virus-encoded telomerase RNA promotes malignant T cell lymphomagenesis. J. Exp. Med., 203:1307-1317.

• Santin, ER, Shamblin, CE, Prigge, JT, Arumugaswami, V, Dienglewicz, RL, and Parcells, MS. 2006. Examination of the effect of a naturally occurring mutation in glycoprotein L on Marek's disease virus pathogenesis. Avian Dis., 50:96-103.

• Anobile, JM, Arumugaswami, V, Downs, D, Czymmek, K, Parcells, MS, and Schmidt, CJ. 2006. Nuclear localization and dynamic properties of the Marek's disease virus oncogene products Meq and Meq/vIL8. J. Virol., 80(3):1160-6.

• Burgess, SC, Young, JR, Baaten, BJG, Hunt, L, Ross, LNJ, Parcells, MS, Kumar, PM, Tragaskes, CA , Lee, LF, and Davison, TF. 2004. Marek's disease is a natural model for lymphomas overexpressing Hodgkin's disease antigen (CD30). PNAS USA 101:13879-13884.

• Prigge, JT, Majerciak,V, Hunt, HD, Dienglewicz, RL, and Parcells, MS. 2004. Construction and characterization of Marek's Disease viruses (MDVs) having green fluorescent protein expression tied directly or indirectly to phosphoprotein 38 (pp38) expression. Avian Dis., 48:471-487.

• Shamblin, CE, Greene, N, Arumugaswami, V, Dienglewicz, RL, and Parcells, MS. 2004. Comparative analysis of Marek's disease virus (MDV) glycoprotein-, lytic antigen pp38- and transformation antigen Meq-encoding genes: association of Meq mutations with MDVs of high virulence. Vet. Microbiol., 102:147-167.

• Levy, AM, Izumiya, Y, Brunovskis, P, Xia, L, Parcells, MS, Reddy, SM, Lee, L, Chen, HW, and Kung, HJ. 2003. Characterization of the chromosomal binding sites and dimerization partners of the viral oncoprotein Meq in Marek's disease virus-transformed T cells. J. Virol., 77:12841-12851.

• Rath, NC , Parcells, MS, Xie, H, and Santin, ER. 2003. Characterization of a spontaneously transformed chicken mononuclear cell line. Vet. Immunol. Immunopathol., 96:93-104.

• Parcells, MS, Arumugaswami, V, Prigge, JT, Pandya, K, and Dienglewicz, RL. 2003. Marek's disease virus reactivation from latency: changes in gene expression at the origin of replication. Poult. Sci., 82:893-898.

Dr. Parcells' Usefull Links