| Website | Home URL |
| Division | Biochemistry |
| Title |
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| Specialties |
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| torres@chem.ucla.edu | |
| Office | Young Hall 5072C |
| Office Phone | (310) 206-2092 |
| Lab | Young Hall 5110 |
| Office Lab | (310) 983-3461 |
Short Biography
Dr. Torres received his B.S. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1998, where he conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Eduardo Orias. He obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University in 2004 under the direction of Dr. Virginia A. Zakian. He conducted his postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. Peter K. Jackson at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Genentech Inc. until 2009 when he joined the faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA.
Research Interests
The lab’s major focus is to understand how multiple mechanisms and enzymatic activities coordinate the formation of the mitotic microtubule spindle during cell division. We are interested in identifying and characterizing novel proteins that are required for proper mitotic spindle assembly. Among these are molecular motors, phosphatases, methyltranferases, and ubiquitin ligases. We use human cell lines and in vitro systems along with a combination of approaches, including biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, chemical biology, and microscopy to determine the mechanism of action of these proteins.
Honors & Awards
- R35 Maximizing Investigator Research Award (MIRA), National Institutes of Health (NIH) – 2021
- Hanson-Dow Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, UCLA – 2020
- Named to Cell Press’ List of 100 Inspiring Hispanic/Latinx Scientists in America – 2020
- Prize for Excellence in Inclusivity, American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) – 2019
- Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science AwardAmerican Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) – 2019
- Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study (Advisor-Student pair), Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) – 2019
- Outstanding College/University Mentor Award Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) – 2019
- Outstanding Hispanic Student Mentor Award Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) – 2019
- Academic Senate Student Development Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award, UCLA – 2019
- Glenn T. Seaborg Award, UCLA – 2016
- American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award – 2014
- UCLA Faculty Career Development Award – 2013
- Cottrell Scholar Award, Research Corporation for Science Advancement – 2013
- Herbert Newby McCoy Award – 2012
- UCLA Faculty Career Developmental Award – 2012
- Basil O’Connor Award, March of Dimes – 2011
- V Scholar Award, The V Foundation for Cancer Research – 2010
- John McTague Career Development Chair – 2009
- Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Postdoctoral Fellowship – 2005
- Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, NIH (declined) – 2005
- Stanford University Cancer Biology Postdoctoral Fellowship – 2004
- Leadership Alliance/Schering-Plough Fellowship – 2003
- Princeton University Molecular Biology Teaching Award – 1999
- Ford Baccalaureate Incentive Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research – 1998
- UCSB Department of MCDB Graduation Commencement Speaker – 1998
Representative Publications
Recent Publications (for the full list, please visit here)
- Dev Cell. 2022 Jun 20;57(12):1482-1495.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2022.05.012. Epub 2022 Jun 8. PMID: 35679863
- . Biochemistry. 2022 April; 61(10):879-894. doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.2c00130.
- J Mol Biol. 2022 Mar 30;434(6):167327. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2021.167327. Epub 2021 Oct 22. Review. PMID: 34695379.
- CANVS: an easy-to-use application for the analysis and visualization of mass spectrometry-based protein-protein interaction/association data. Velasquez E.F., Garcia Y.A., Ramirez I., Gholkar A.A., and Torres J.Z. Molecular Biology of the Cell 2021 Aug 25: mbcE21050257, doi: 10.1091/mbc.E21-05-0257. PMID: 34432510
- The Mammalian Katanin Family of Microtubule-Severing Enzymes. Lynn N.A., Martinez E., Nguyen H., and Torres J.Z. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology 2021 Aug 3;9:692040 (Review)
- Mapping Proximity Associations of Core Spindle Assembly Checkpoint Proteins. Garcia Y.A., Velasquez E.F., Gao L.W., Gholkar A.A., Clutario K.M., Cheung K., Williams-Hamilton T., Whitelegge J.P., and Torres J.Z. ”, Journal of Proteome Research 2021 Jul 2;20(7):3414-3427. doi: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.0c00941. PMID: 34087075
- DUSP7 Regulates the Activity of ERK2 to Promote Proper Chromosome Alignment During Cell Division. Guo X., Garcia Y.A., Ramirez I., Velasquez E.F., Gao L.W., Gholkar A.A., Whitelegge J.P., Tofig B., Damoiseaux R., and Torres, J.Z. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2021 Jan-Jun;296:100676. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2021.100676. Epub 2021 Apr 16. PMID: 33865857
- The Myosin Regulatory Light Chain Myl5 Localizes to Mitotic Spindle Poles and is Required for Proper Cell Division. Ramirez I., Gholkar A.A., Velasquez E.F., Guo X., Tofig B., Damoiseaux R., and Torres, J.Z. Cytoskeleton 2021 Feb;78(2):23-35. doi: 10.1002/cm.21654. PMID: 33641240
- Phospho-Regulation of Mitotic Spindle Assembly. Ong J.Y., Bradley M.C., and Torres J.Z. Cytoskeleton 2020 Dec;77(12):558-578. doi: 10.1002/cm.21649. PMID: 33280275 (Review)
- Phase Separation in Cell Division. Ong J.Y. and Torres J.Z. Molecular Cell 2020 Oct 1;80(1):9-20. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2020.08.007. PMID: 32860741 (Review)
- Regulation of Iron Homeostasis Through Parkin-mediated Lactoferrin Ubiquitylation. Gholkar A.A., Schmollinger S., Velasquez E.F., Lo Y.C., Cohn W., Capri J., Dharmarajan H., Deardorff W.J., Gao L.W., Abdusamad M. Whitelegge J.P., and Torres J.Z. Biochemistry 2020 Aug 18;59(32):2916-2921. PMID: 32786404
- Fostering Inclusion and Diversity Through Research, Teaching, Mentoring, and Outreach. Torres J.Z. Molecular Biology of the Cell 2019 Nov 1;30(23):2870-2872. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E19-07-0379. PMID: 31671035 (Essay)
- Menin Associates with the Mitotic Spindle and is Important for Cell Division. Sawicki M.P., Gholkar A.A., and Torres J.Z. Endocrinology 2019 Aug 1;160(8):1926-1936. doi: 10.1210/en.2019-00274. PMID:31211356
- Dissecting the Mechanisms of Cell Division. Ong J.Y. and Torres J.Z. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2019 Jul 26;294(30):11382-11390. doi: 10.1074/jbc.AW119.008149. Epub 2019 Jun 7. PMID:31175154 (Review)
- Leukemia Cell Cycle Chemical Profiling Identifies the G2-Phase Leukemia Specific Inhibitor Leusin-1. Xia X., Lo Y.C., Gholkar A.A., Senese S., Ong J.Y., Velasquez E.F., Damoiseaux R., and Torres J.Z. ACS Chemical Biology 2019 May 17;14(5):994-1001. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.9b00173. Epub 2019 May 8. PMID:31046221
- E3 Ubiquitin Ligases in Cancer and Their Pharmacological Targeting. Ong J.Y. and Torres J.Z. Ubiquitin Proteasome System – Current Insights into Mechanism Cellular Regulation and Disease, 2019 Feb. 15, doi: 10.5772/intechopen.82883, Print ISBN 978-1-83880-491-6. (Book Chapter)
- In Silico Repurposing of Cell Cycle Modulators for Cancer Treatment. Lo Y.C. and Torres J.Z. In Silico Drug Design: Repurposing Techniques and Methodologies, 2019 April. 1, Ch.9, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816125-8.00009-2, Print ISBN 9780128161258. (Book Chapter)
- A Molecular Cascade Modulates MAP1B and Confers Resistance to mTOR Inhibition in Human Glioblastoma. Lacks D.R., Oses-Prieto J.A., Alvarado A.G., Nakashima J., Chand S., Azzam D.B., Gholkar A.A., Sperry J., Ludwig K., Condro M.C., Nazarian S., Cardenas A., Shih M.Y.S., Damoiseaux R., France B., Orozco N., Visnyei K., Crisman T. J., Gao F., Torres J.Z., Coppola G., Burlingame A.L., and Kornblum H.I., Neuro Oncology 2018 May 18;20(6):764-775. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/nox215. PMID:29136244
- Ensuring Fidelity of Chromosome Segregation. Ünal E. and Torres J.Z. Molecular Biology of the Cell 2018 Mar 15;29(6):687. doi: 10.1091/mbc. E17-11-0673. PMID:29535171 (Meeting Review)
- Microtubins: a Novel Class of Small Synthetic Microtubule Targeting Drugs that Inhibit Cancer Cell Proliferation. Senese S., Lo Y.C., Gholkar A.A., Li C.M., Huang Y., Mottahedeh J., Kornblum H.I., Damoiseaux R., and Torres J.Z. Oncotarget 2017 Oct 19;8(61):104007-104021. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.21945. eCollection 2017 Nov 28. PMID:29262617
- Computational Cell Cycle Profiling of Cancer Cells for Prioritizing FDA-Approved Drugs with Repurposing Potential. Lo Y.C., Senese S., France B., Gholkar A.A., Damoiseaux R., and Torres J.Z. Scientific Reports 2017 Sep 12;7(1):11261. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-11508-2. PMID:28900159
- Kaempferol increases levels of coenzyme Q in kidney cells and serves as a biosynthetic ring precursor. Fernández-Del-Río L., Nag A., Gutiérrez Casado, E., Ariza, J., Awad A.M., Joseph A.I., Kwon O., Verdin E., de Cabo R., Schneider C., Torres J.Z., Burón M.I., Clarke C.F., and Villalba J.M., Free Radical Biology & Medicine 2017 Jun 8. pii: S0891-5849(17)30629-9. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2017.06.006. PMID:28603085
- NMR Structure-Based Optimization of Staphylococcus aureus Sortase A Pyridazinone Inhibitors. Chan A.H., Yi S.W., Weiner E.M., Amer B.R., Sue C.K., Wereszczynski J., Dillen C.A., Senese S., Torres J.Z., McCammon J., Miller L.S., Jung M.E., and Clubb R.T. Chemical Biology & Drug Design 2017 Feb. 3., doi: 10.1111/cbdd.12962 PMID:28160417
- Inducible LAP-tagged Stable Cell Lines for Investigating Protein Function, Spatiotemporal Localization and Protein Interaction Networks. Bradley M., Ramirez I., Cheung K., Gholkar A.A., and Torres J.Z. Journal of Visualized Experiments 2016 Dec. 24, (118):1-9, e54870, doi:10.3791/54870. PMID:28060263
- Quantitative Methods in System-based Drug Discovery. Lo Y.C., Gui R., Honda H., and Torres J.Z. Computer-aided Technologies –Applications in Engineering and Medicine, 2016 Dec. 7, Ch.6, pgs. 121-135, doi: 10.5772/65038, ISBN 978-953-51-2788-8, Print ISBN 978-953-51-2787-1. (Book Chapter)
- Computer-Aided Biosensor Design. Lo Y.C., Gui R., Honda H., and Torres J.Z. Computer-aided Technologies –Applications in Engineering and Medicine, 2016 Dec. 7, Ch.6, pgs. 121-135, doi: 10.5772/65038, ISBN 978-953-51-2788-8, Print ISBN 978-953-51-2787-1. (Book Chapter)
- Chemical Similarity Networks for Drug Discovery. Lo Y.C. and Torres J.Z. Special Topics in Drug Discovery, 2016 Nov. 30, Ch.3, pgs. 53-72, doi: 10.5772/65106, ISBN 978-953-51-2800-7, Print ISBN 978-953-51-2799-4. (Book Chapter)
- Fatostatin Inhibits Cancer Cell Proliferation by Affecting Mitotic Microtubule Spindle Assembly and Cell Division. Gholkar A.A., Cheung K., Williams K.J., Lo Y.C., Hamideh S.A., Nnebe C., Khuu C., Bensinger S.J. and Torres J.Z. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2016 Aug 12;291(33):17001-8. doi: 10.1074/jbc.C116.737346. PMID:27378817
- 3D Chemical Similarity Networks for Structure-Based Target Prediction and Scaffold Hopping. Lo Y.C., Senese S., Damoiseaux R., and Torres J.Z. ACS Chemical Biology 2016 Aug 19;11(8):2244-53. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.6b00253. PMID:27285961
- Cystatin E/M suppresses tumor cell growth through cytoplasmic retention of NF-κB. Soh H., Venkatesan N., Veena M.S., Ravichandran S., Zinabadi A., Basak S.K., Parvatiyar K., Srivastava M., Liang L.J., Gjertson D.W., Torres J. Z., Moatamed N.A., and Srivatsan E.S. Molecular and Cellular Biology 2016 May 31;36(12):1776-92. doi: 10.1128/MCB.00878-15. PMID:27090639
- Proteomic Analysis of the Mammalian Katanin Family of Microtubule-severing Enzymes Defines Katanin p80 subunit B-like 1 (KATNBL1) as a Regulator of Mammalian Katanin Microtubule-severing. Cheung K., Senese S., Kuang J., Bui N., Ongpipattanakul C., Gholkar A., Cohn W., Capri J., Whitelegge J.P., and Torres J.Z. Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 2016 May;15(5):1658-69. doi:10.1074/mcp.M115.056465. Epub 2016 Feb 29. PMID:26929214
- The X-linked-Intellectual-Disability-Associated Ubiquitin Ligase Mid2 Interacts with Astrin and Regulates Astrin Levels to Promote Cell Division. Gholkar A.A., Senese S., Lo Y.C., Vides E., Contreras E., Hodara E., Capri J., Whitelegge J.P., and Torres J.Z. Cell Reports 2016 Jan 12;14(2):180-188. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2015.12.035. Epub 2015 Dec 31. PMID:26748699
- Structures of potent anticancer compounds bound to tubulin. McNamara D.E., Senese S., Yeates T.O., and Torres J.Z. Protein Science 2015 Jul;24(7):1164-1172. doi: 10.1002/pro.2704. Epub 2015 May 27. PMID:25970265.
- A LCMT1-PME1 Methylation Equilibrium Controls Mitotic Spindle Size. Xia X., Gholkar A., Senese S., and Torres J.Z. Cell Cycle 2015 Jun.18;14(12):1938-1947. PMID:25839665.
- Tctex1d2 Associates with Short-Rib Polydactyly Syndrome Proteins and is Required for Ciliogenesis. Gholkar A.A., Senese S., Lo Y.C., Capri J., Deardorff W.J., Dharmarajan H., Contreras E., Hodara E., Whitelegge J.P., Jackson P.K., and Torres J.Z. Cell Cycle 2015 Apr 3;14(7):1116-1125. PMID:25830415.
- Large-scale Chemical Similarity Networks for Target Profiling of Compounds Identified in Cell-based Chemical Screens. Lo Y.C., Senese S., Li C.M., Hu Q., Huang Y., Damoiseaux R., and Torres J.Z. PLOS Computational Biology 2015 Mar 31;11(3):e1004153. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004153. eCollection 2015 Mar. PMID:25826798.
- A Unique Insertion in STARD9’s Motor Domain Regulates Its Stability. Senese S., Cheung K., Lo Y.C., Gholkar A.A., Xia X., Wohlschlegel J.A., and Torres J.Z. Molecular Biology of the Cell 2015 Feb 1;26(3):440-52. Epub 2014 Dec 10.2014. PMID: 25501367
- p16 protein and gigaxonin are associated with the ubiquitination of NFkB in cisplatin-induced senescence of cancer cells. Veena M.S., Wilken R., Zheng J.Y., Gholkar A, Venkatesan N, Vira D., Ahmed S., Basak S.K., Dalgard C.L., Ravichandran S, Batra R. K., Kasahara N., Elashoff D., Fishbein M.C., Whitelegge J.P., Torres J.Z., Wang M.B., and Srivatsan E.S. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2014 Oct 20. 289(50) 34921-34937. PMID:25331947.
- Chemical dissection of the cell cycle: probes for cell biology and anti-cancer drug development. Senese S., Lo Y.C., Huang D., Zangle T.A., Gholkar A.A., Robert L., Homet B., Ribas A., Summers M.K., Teitell M.A., Damoiseaux R., and Torres J.Z. Cell Death & Disease 2014 Oct 16;5:e1462. doi: 10.1038/cddis.2014.420. PMID:25321469.
- Theoretical Approaches to Identify the Potent Scaffold for Human Sirtuin 1 Activator: Bayesian Modeling and Density Functional Theory Sakkiah,S., Arooj M., Lee K., and Torres J.Z. Medicinal Chemistry Research 2014 March 09, 23(5) 2161-2700. PMCID:
- Dynamic and Multi-pharmacophore Modeling for Designing Polo-box Domain Inhibitors Sakkiah S., Senese S., Yang Q., Lee K., and Torres J.Z. Plos One 2014 Jul 18, 9(7):e101405. PMCID: PMC4103762
- An Essential Requirement for the SCAP/SREBP Signaling Axis to Protect Cancer Cells from Lipotoxicity Williams KJ, Argus JP, Zhu Y, Wilks MQ, Marbois BN, York AG, Kidani Y, Pourzia AL, Akhavan D, Lisiero DN, Komisopoulou E, Henkin AH, Soto H, Chamberlain BT, Vergnes L, Jung ME, Torres JZ, Liau LM, Christofk HR, Prins RM, Mischel PS, Reue K, Graeber TG, Bensinger SJ. Cancer Research 2013 Apr 22;73:2850-2862
- STARD9 is a novel mitotic kinesin and antimitotic target Torres, J.Z. BioArchitecture 2012 Jan 1;2(1):19-22.
- The STARD9/Kif16a Kinesin Associates with Mitotic Microtubules and Regulates Spindle Pole Assembly Torres J.Z., Summers M.K., Peterson D., Brauer M.J., Lee J., Senese S., Gholkar A.A., Lo Y., Lei X., Jung K., Anderson D.C., Davis D.P., Belmont L., and Jackson P.K. Cell 2011, Dec;9(6):1309-1323.
- A specific form of PPP2 regulates APC/C association with spindle poles Torres J.Z., Ban K.H., and Jackson P.K. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 2010 Mar;21(6):897-904.;21 897-904
- High-throughput generation of tagged stable cell lines for proteomic analysis. Torres Jorge Z, Miller Julie J, Jackson Peter K Proteomics, 2009; 9(10): 2888-91.
- The END network couples spindle pole assembly to inhibition of the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome in early mitosis. Ban Kenneth H, Torres Jorge Z, Miller Julie J, Mikhailov Alexei, Nachury Maxence V, Tung Jeffrey J, Rieder Conly L, Jackson Peter K Developmental cell, 2007; 13(1): 29-42.
- The S. cerevisiae Rrm3p DNA helicase moves with the replication fork and affects replication of all yeast chromosomes. Azvolinsky Anna, Dunaway Stephen, Torres Jorge Z, Bessler Jessica B, Zakian Virginia A Genes & development, 2006; 20(22): 3104-16.
- Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rrm3p DNA helicase promotes genome integrity by preventing replication fork stalling: viability of rrm3 cells requires the intra-S-phase checkpoint and fork restart activities. Torres Jorge Z, Schnakenberg Sandra L, Zakian Virginia A Molecular and cellular biology, 2004; 24(8): 3198-212.
- Local chromatin structure at the ribosomal DNA causes replication fork pausing and genome instability in the absence of the S. cerevisiae DNA helicase Rrm3p. Torres Jorge Z, Bessler Jessica B, Zakian Virginia A Genes & development, 2004; 18(5): 498-503.
- The Pif1p subfamily of helicases: region-specific DNA helicases? Bessler J.B., Torres J.Z., and Zakian V.A. Trends in Cell Biology, 2001; 11(2): 60-65.