Lab Members

Scott Parnell, PhD

Associate Professor

Scott Parnell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology and a member of the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies and the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities. He earned his BA in Biology from Texas A&M University and stayed at Texas A&M for his Ph.D. in developmental neurobiology studying mechanisms of Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) under the guidance of Dr. James West. After grad school, he then moved to UNC for his postdoctoral training in embryology in the laboratory of Dr. Kathy Sulik where he started examining the stage-dependent effects of early gestational alcohol exposure. In the latter stages of his postdoctoral work, he began studying the mechanisms of how alcohol disrupts early developmental processes. The Parnell lab continues this developmental mechanistic research by studying how alcohol and other drugs affect key cellular events during early embryogenesis. Scott teaches Anatomy to the medical students and teaches graduate students in the Cell Biology & Physiology curriculum. He also provides lectures on normal and abnormal embryogenesis in many different courses throughout UNC to public health students, nursing students, and dental residents. In his spare time, he enjoys the outdoors, cooking, sports, working on cars, and spending time on the water with his family. Email: sparnell@med.unc.edu

Eric Fish, PhD

Research Associate

Eric Fish earned his PhD from Tufts University under the co-mentorship of Drs. Klaus A. Miczek and Joe F. DeBold. A behavioral neuroscientist at heart, Eric joined the Parnell laboratory and was immediately inspired by the elegance of morphological phenotyping. The combined powers of behavioral and morphological phenotyping allow Eric to investigate the consequences of prenatal drug exposures across the entire lifespan, and how specific gene manipulations confer sensitivity or resistance to specific prenatal alcohol effects. His research interests have recently expanded to how cannabinoids can modulate the sensitivity to prenatal alcohol exposure by acting on a similar pathogenic mechanism. In his free time, Eric enjoys being outdoors and cheering for the Tar Heels with his family.

Dina Abu Rabe, PhD