Parker B Antin

Parker B Antin

Associate Dean, Research-Agriculture and Life Sciences
Associate Vice President for Research, Agriculture - Life and Veterinary Sciences / Cooperative Extension
Professor, Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Professor, Molecular and Cellular Biology
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 621-5242

Research Interest

Parker Antin is Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine in the College of Medicine, Associate Vice President for Research for the Division of Agriculture, Life and Veterinary Medicine, and Cooperative Extension, and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. In his positions of Associate Vice President and Associate Dean, he is responsible for developing and implementing the research vision for the Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Veterinary Medicine, with total research expenditures of approximately $65M per year. His responsibilities include oversight of research strategy and portfolio investment, grants and contracts pre award services, research intensive faculty hires and retentions, research communication and marketing, research facilities, and research compliance services. In collaboration with Division and College leadership teams, he has shared responsibilities for philanthropy, budgets and information technology. Dr. Antin is a vertebrate developmental biologist whose research is concerned with the molecular mechanisms of embryonic development. His research has been supported by NIH, NSF, NASA, USDA, and the DOE, as well as several private foundations including the American Heart Association and the Muscular Dystrophy Association, He is the Principal Investigator of CyVerse, a $115M NSF funded cyberinfrastructure project whose mission is to design, deploy and expand a national cyberinfrastructure for life sciences research, and train scientists in its use (http://cyverse.org). With 65,000 users worldwide, CyVerse enables scientists to manage and store data and experiments, access high-performance computing, and share data and results with colleagues and the public. Dr. Antin is also active nationally in the areas of science policy and funding for science. He is a past President of the Federation of Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), an umbrella science policy and advocacy organization representing 32 scientific societies and 135,000 scientists. His continued work with FASEB, along with his duties as Associate Vice President and Associate Dean for Research, and CyVerse PI, brings him frequently to Washington, DC, where he advocates for support of science and science policy positions that enhance the scientific enterprise.

Publications

Hardy, K. M., Mjaatvedt, C. H., & Antin, P. B. (2006). Hot hearts in the sonoran desert: The 11th Weinstein Cardiovascular Development Conference in Tucson. Developmental Dynamics, 235(1), 170-175.

PMID: 16273525;Abstract:

The 11th Annual Weinstein Cardiovascular Development Conference was held May 19-22, 2005 at the Westward Look Resort and Conference Center in Tucson, Arizona. The Westward Look was the site of the 6th Weinstein Meeting in 1999, and this year, 330 basic research scientists and research clinicians returned to Tucson for 3 days of meetings, Mariachis, and margaritas. The meeting was hosted by the cardiovascular research group at the University of Arizona and offered flavors of the desert southwest that included record temperatures, the Skopopelli conference logo modified from the Kokopelli of Native American mythology (Fig. 1), and liberal use of a cattle prod to encourage speaker timeliness. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Antin, P. (2013). The interesting times of science. Developmental Dynamics, 242(1), 1-.
Yatskievych, T. A., Pascoe, S., & Antin, P. B. (1999). Expression of the homeobox gene Hex during early stages of chick embryo development. Mechanisms of Development, 80(1), 107-109.

PMID: 10096068;Abstract:

Whole mount in situ hybridization studies were performed to investigate the expression pattern of the homeobox gene Hex (also known as Prh) during early stages of chick embryogenesis. At the time of laying, cHex transcripts are detected in Koller's sickle and the forming hypoblast. During gastrulation (HH stage 4), chex is expressed in anteriorly-displaced hypoblast cells. At stage 6, cHex transcripts are observed within endoderm in an anterior arc that overlaps the cardiogenic region. Later chex expression is observed within pharyngeal endoderm immediately adjacent to the forming myocardium, in the endocardium and in the liver and thyroid gland primordia. cHex transcripts are also detected within blood islands beginning at stage 4, and in extraembryonic and intraembryonic vascular endothelial cells as vessels form.

Antin, P. B., Fallon, J. F., & Schoenwolf, G. C. (2004). The Chick Embryo Rules (Still)!. Developmental Dynamics, 229(3), 413-.
Zhang, W., Yatskievych, T. A., Baker, R. K., & Antin, P. B. (2004). Regulation of Hex gene expression and initial stages of avian hepatogenesis by Bmp and Fgf signaling. Developmental Biology, 268(2), 312-326.

PMID: 15063170;Abstract:

The vertebrate liver and heart arise from adjacent cell layers in the anterior lateral (AL) endoderm and mesoderm of late gastrula embryos, and the earliest stages of liver and heart development are interrelated through reciprocal tissue interactions. Although classical embryological studies performed several decades ago in chick and quail defined the timing of hepatogenic induction in birds and the important role for cardiogenic mesoderm in this process, almost nothing is known about the molecular aspects of avian liver development. Here we use in vivo and explantation assays to investigate tissue interactions and signaling pathways regulating Hex, a homeobox gene required for liver development, and the earliest stages of hepatogenesis in the chick embryo. We find that explants of late gastrula anterior lateral endoderm plus mesoderm, which have been used extensively for studies relating to heart development, also produce albumin-expressing hepatoblasts. Expression of Hex, the earliest known molecular marker for the hepatogenic endoderm, and albumin, indicative of early committed hepatoblasts, requires both autocrine Bmp signaling and a specific paracrine signal from the cardiogenic (anterior lateral) mesoderm. Endodermal expression of Fox2a, in contrast, requires the mesoderm but is independent of Bmp signaling. In vivo induction assays show that the ability of BMP2 to activate Hex expression in the endoderm is restricted to a region that is only slightly larger than the endogenous domain of Hex expression. Although Fgfs can substitute for the cardiogenic mesoderm to support the expression of Hex and albumin in the endoderm, several Fgf genes are expressed in the anterior lateral endoderm but an Fgf expressed predominantly in the mesoderm was not identified. Studies also showed that Fgf gene expression in the endoderm does not require a signal from the mesoderm. Mechanisms regulating endodermal signaling pathways activated by Fgfs may therefore be more complex than previously appreciated. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.