Aaron Mendez

Alumni Graduate Student

aaron@walterlab.ucsf.edu

Scientific Interest

Using chemical-genetics to study cellular folding processes, and the effects of small molecules on protein conformational states.

Current Research Interests

Generating and characterizing chemical modulators of the UPR.

Former Lab Affiliations

2005-2006	Dr. Jay Dunlap – Undergraduate Researcher, Dartmouth College
2006-2009	Dr. Gregory A. Weiss – Undergraduate Researcher, University of California, Irvine

Education

2009	B.S. Biochemistry/Chemistry – University of California, Irvine, USA
2009-Present	Ph.D – University of California, San Francisco, USA

Selected Publications

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
(PMCID : 4687415) (PMID : 26483401) (PDF)

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
(PMCID : PMC4436593) (PMID : 25875391) (PDF)

Sidrauski C, Tsai JC, Kampmann M, Hearn BR, Vedantham P, Jaishankar P, Sokabe M, Mendez A, Newton BW, Tang EL, Verschueren E, Johnson JR, Krogan NJ, Fraser CS, Weissman JS, Renslo AR, Walter P. Pharmacological dimerization and activation of the exchange factor eIF2B antagonizes the integrated stress response. eLife 4:e07314, 2015
(PMCID : PMC4426669) (PMID : 25875391) (PDF)

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
(PMCID : PMC4163648) (PMID : 24994655) (PDF)