He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree by the University of Oxford in 1991 for research on smooth muscle supervised by Alison Brading.
[1] He carried out postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for biophysical Chemistry (Goettingen) in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Erwin Neher, working with Walter Stuehmer and then Reinhold Penner.
[3][4][5][7][8] He investigates how cells communicate with one another, with an emphasis on how the ubiquitous intracellular signalling messenger calcium controls biological functions such as secretion, energy production and gene expression.
[9][8][10][11][12] Parekh's research investigates how aberrant calcium signals can contribute to ill health in humans, including allergies and asthma.
[9] Opening of these channels leads to calcium entry into the cell from the blood, triggering important physiological responses.