Jose Carlos Ponce Rojas

Postdoctoral scholar
Email: 
jcponce@ucsb.edu
Office: 
Main lab - 2203 Life Sciences Building

Education

  • Ph.D., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
  • M.S., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
  • B.S., Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico.

Awards & Honors

  • 2018 Lindros Award - UCSB Center for Bioengineering.
  • 2017 Excellence in Instruction Award. Universidad Latinoamericana, México.
  • 2017 cum laude, Ph.D. degree.
  • 2012 cum laude, M.S. degree.
  • 2009 cum laude, B.S. degree.

Biography

Dr. Ponce Rojas earned a B.S. degree in Biomedical Sciences at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla in Mexico, studying the biogenesis of prohormone convertase 1. For his graduate work, Carlos moved to Mexico City, where he earned M.S. (2012) and Ph.D. (2017) degrees in Biochemistry at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the molecular mechanisms that control proper targeting of proteins to the mitochondria. His main discovery was the functional connection between the cytosol chaperone NAC and the mitochondrial protein Sam37.

Carlos’s biggest hobbies are cooking (minilab at home) and playing music. Carlos joined the Acosta-Alvear lab in April, 2018.

 

Publications:

1. Ponce-Rojas JC*, Costello MS*, Proctor DA, Kosik KS, Wilson MZ, Arias C, and Acosta-Alvear D. "A Fast and Accessible Method for the Isolation of RNA, DNA, and Protein to Facilitate the Detection of SARS-CoV-2". J Clin Microbiol. 2020 Dec 8:JCM.02403-20. doi: 10.1128/JCM.02403-20. PMID: 33293367. *Equal contribution.

2. Rauch JN, Valois E, Ponce-Rojas JC, Aralis Z, Lach RL, Zappa F, Audouard M, Solley SC, Vaidya C, Costello MS, Smith H, Javanbakht A, Malear B, Polito L, Comer S, Arn K, Kosik KS, Acosta-Alvear D, Wilson MZ, and Arias, C. "CRISPR-based and RT-qPCR surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in asymptomatic individuals uncovers a shift in viral prevalence among a university population". MedRxiv, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.06.20169771.

3. Ponce-Rojas JC*, Costello MS*, Proctor DA, Kosik KS, Wilson MZ, Arias C, and Acosta-Alvear D. "A Fast and Accessible Method for the Isolation of RNA, DNA, and Protein to Facilitate the Detection of SARS-CoV-2". BioRxiv, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.29.178384. *Equal contribution.

4.  Rauch JN,  Valois E, Solley SC, Braig F, Lach RS, Audouard M, Ponce-Rojas JC, Costello MS, Baxter NJ, Kosik KS, Arias C, Acosta-Alvear D, Wilson MZ. "A Scalable, Easy-to-Deploy, Protocol for Cas13-Based Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Genetic Material". BioRxiv, 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.20.052159.

5. Ponce-Rojas JC, Avendano-Monsave MC, Yañez-Falcón AR, Jaimes-Miranda F, Garay E, Torrez-Quiroz F, DeLuna A, Funes S. (2017). alpha-beta'-NAC cooperates with Sam37 to mediate early stages of mitochondrial protein import. FEBS J. 2017 Mar;284(5):814-830. PMID: 28109174

 

Research Area

Carlos is interested on defining the features that render an RNA molecule harmful and the cellular mechanisms that detect and respond to these harmful RNAs.

Research Areas