Dr. Parsons is an associate professor for pediatrics-oncology; molecular and human genetics; and for the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine. He is also director of the Center for Personal Cancer Genomics and Therapeutics, and co-director of the Neuro-Oncology Program and the Cancer Genetics and Genomics Program at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers. He is a board-certified pediatric hematologist-oncologist specializing in the care of children with brain and spinal cord tumors.
His research program focuses on the clinical application of genomic technologies in pediatric cancer care and the use of these sequencing methods to characterize the molecular basis of pediatric cancers. His work has been instrumental in the characterization of the genetic landscapes of a variety of pediatric and adult cancers, including the identification of IDH1 and IDH2 as critical genes in gliomas and MLL2 and MLL3 in medulloblastomas. He is the co-PI of the ongoing BASIC3 (Baylor Advancing Sequencing in Childhood Cancer Care) study, a NHGRI Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research project investigating the utility of tumor and germline whole exome sequencing for children with newly-diagnosed CNS and non-CNS solid tumors. He is also the BCM PI of the first Stand Up To Cancer-St. Baldrick’s Pediatric Cancer Dream Team project, ͞Immunogenomics to Create New Therapies for High-Risk Childhood Cancers͟. Dr. Parsons is currently engaged in genomic analyses of numerous pediatric cancers, including central nervous system tumors, sarcomas, lymphomas, and histiocytic disorders.
Dr. Parsons received his M.D. and his Ph.D. in pathology from the Ohio State University College of Medicine. He completed his residency in pediatrics and a clinical fellowship in neuro-oncology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and a clinical fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology at the National Cancer Institute.
