Biography

Dr. Acosta-Alvear earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biological Sciences at the Universidad de los Andes, in Bogotá, Colombia. He relocated to the US in 2002. He next earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the New York University Sackler Institute for Graduate Biomedical Sciences. His doctoral work focused on understanding the transcriptional plasticity of the endoplasmic reticulum stress response known as the “unfolded protein response” (UPR). As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Walter at the University of California, San Francisco, he studied the inner workings of UPR and the wiring of the proteostasis network in health and disease. Dr. Acosta-Alvear joined the UCSB faculty in 2016.

Research Area

Our lab investigates the molecular mechanisms by which cellular stress response networks reinstate homeostasis or promote cell death. By understanding how these networks are wired in healthy cells we can discern how they become re-wired during disease.

Selected Publications