Diego Acosta-Alvear

Alumni Postdoctoral Fellow

diego.acosta-alvear@lifesci.ucsb.edu

Current Position

Assistant Professor

Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

University of California Santa Barbara

daa@lifesci.ucsb.edu

https://labs.mcdb.ucsb.edu/acosta-alvear/diego/

Scientific Interest

Wiring of the unfolded protein response in normal cells and in disease.

Current Research Interests

Protein-RNA interactions operating during the ER stress response employing next generation sequencing coupled to biochemistry and cell biology methods. The re-wiring of the unfolded protein response in cancer cells employing ultra complex shRNA libraries to discover genetic vulnerabilities.

Former Lab Affiliations

2003-2008

Dr. Brian Dynlacht – Graduate Student, New York University

Education

2008	Ph.D Biomedical Sciences – New York University,
2005	M.S. Biomedical Sciences – New York University,
2002	M.S. Biological Sciences – Universidad de los Andes,
2001	B.S. Biological Sciences – Universidad de los Andes,

Selected Publications

Dufey E, Bravo-San Pedro JM, Eggers C, González-Quiroz M, Urra H, Sagredo AI, Sepulveda D, Pihán P, Carreras-Sureda A, Hazari Y, Sagredo EA, Gutierrez D, Valls C, Papaioannou A, Acosta-Alvear D, Campos G, Domingos PM, Pedeux R, Chevet E, Alvarez A, Godoy P, Walter P, Glavic A, Kroemer G, Hetz C. Genotoxic stress triggers the activation of IRE1α-dependent RNA decay to modulate the DNA damage response. Nat Commun 11:2401, 2020 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 32409639)
Harnoss JM, Le Thomas A, Shemorry A, Marsters SA, Lawrence DA, Lu M, Chen Y-C A, Qing J, Totpal K, Kan D, Segal E, Merchant M, Reichelt M, Ackerly Wallweber H, Wang W, Clark K, Kaufman S, Beresini MH, Laing ST, Sandoval W, Lorenzo M, Wu J, Ly J, De Bruyn T, Heidersbach A, Haley B, Gogineni A, Weimer RM, Lee D, Braun M-G, Rudolph J, VanWyngarden MJ, Sherbenou DW, Gomez-Bougie P, Amiot M, Acosta-Alvear D, Walter P, Ashkenazi A. Disruption of IRE1α through its kinase domain attenuates multiple myeloma. Proc Natl Acad Sci 116:16420-16429, 2019 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 31371506)
Karagöz GE, Acosta-Alvear D, Walter P. The Unfolded Protein Response: Detecting and Responding to Fluctuations in the Protein-Folding Capacity of the Endoplasmic Reticulum. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. Review 11:a033886, 2019 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 30670466)
Acosta-Alvear D, Karagöz GE, Fröhlich F, Li H, Walther T, Walter P. The unfolded protein response and endoplasmic reticulum protein targeting machineries converge on the stress sensor IRE1. eLife 7:e43036, 2018 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 30582518)
Karagöz GE, Acosta-Alvear D, Nguyen HT, Lee CP, Chu F, Walter P. An unfolded protein-induced conformational switch activates mammalian IRE1. eLife 6:e30700, 2017 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 28971800)
Tufanli O, Telkoparan-Akillilar P, Acosta-Alvear D, Kocaturk B, Onata UI, Hamida SM, Cimen I, Walter P, Weber C, Erbay E. Targeting IRE1 with small molecules counteracts progression of atherosclerosis. Proc Natl Acad Sci, 114:E1395-E1404, 2017 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 28137856)
Peschek J, Acosta-Alvear D, Mendez AS, Walter P. A conformational RNA zipper promotes intron ejection during non‐conventional XBP1 mRNA splicing. EMBO Rep 16:1688–1698, 2015 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 26483401)
Li X, Colvin T, Rauch JN, Acosta-Alvear D, Kampmann M, Dunyak B, Hann B, Aftab BT, Murnane M, Cho M, Walter P, Weissman JS, Sherman MY, Gestwicki JE. Validation of the Hsp70-Bag3 protein-protein interaction as a potential therapeutic target in cancer. Mol Cancer Ther 14:642-8, 2015 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 25564440)
Mendez A, Alfaro J, Morales-Soto MA, Dar AC, McCullagh E, Gotthardt K, Li H, Acosta-Alvear D, Sidrauski C, Korennykh AV, Bernales S, Shokat KM, Walter P. Endoplasmic reticulum stress-independent activation of unfolded protein response kinases by a small molecule ATP-mimic. eLife 4:e07314, 2015 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 25875391)
Acosta-Alvear D, Cho M, Wild T, Buchholz TJ, Lerner AG, Simakova O, Hahn J, Korde N, Landgren O, Maric I, Choudhary C, Walter P, Weissman JS, Kampmann M. Paradoxical resistance of multiple myeloma to proteasome inhibitors by decreased levels of 19S proteasomal subunits. eLife 4:e08153, 2015 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 26327686)
Lu M, Lawrence D, Marsters S, Acosta-Alvear D, Kimmig P, Mendez A, Paton A, Paton J, Walter P, Ashkenazi A. Opposing unfolded-protein-response signals converge on death receptor 5 to control apoptosis. Science 345:98-101, 2014 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 24994655)
Sidrauski C, Acosta-Alvear D, Khoutorsky A, Vedantham P, Hearn B, Li H, Gamache K, Gallagher C, Ang K, Wilson C, Okreglak V, Ashkenazi A, Hann B, Nader K, Arkin M, Renslo A, Sonenberg N, Walter P. Pharmacological brake-release of mRNA translation enhances cognitive memory. eLife 2:e00498, 2013 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 23741617)
Behrman S, Acosta-Alvear D, Walter P. A CHOP-regulated microRNA controls rhodopsin expression. J Cell Biol 192:919-27, 2010 Publication identifiers: (PMID: 21402790)