People
Darren J. Parker

Darren J. Parker

Undergraduate Student
(September 2011-May 2013)

B.S. Biochemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, May 2014

Email: dj.parker34@gmail.com

Click here for Darren's alter ego picture

 

   

Brief Biography

Darren Parker was an undergraduate student majoring in Biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During his junior year, he performed undergraduate research under the supervision of Prof. Scott K. Silverman. In his senior year, he worked with Prof. Auinash Kalsotra in the Department of Biochemistry. Upon graduation, he was awarded Highest Distinction by the Department of Biochemistry, and he won the Jackson Senior Thesis Award for best thesis. After graduation, he moved to the Department of Biology at MIT as a graduate student.

Research Interests

My research project in the Silverman lab pursued the identification of deoxyribozymes that catalyze hydrolytic cleavage (rather than cleavage by transesterification) of RNA.

  • "DNA Catalysis of a Normally Disfavored RNA Hydrolysis Reaction", D. J. Parker, Y. Xiao, J. M. Aguilar, and S. K. Silverman, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 8472-8475. [pdf] [Supp Info] [PubMed entry]