Professor Jose Rodriguez is one of two UCLA faculty members selected for the inaugural 2024–25 UCLA Academic Senate Service Rising Star Award. The award recognizes his service on the Graduate Council and his role as the Graduate Council liaison to the Academic Program Review Committee.
According to the announcement, the award celebrates and recognizes UCLA Senate faculty who are in an early stage of their Senate service and have demonstrated a noteworthy contribution to the Academic Senate. Professor Isla Garraway from the department of Urology at UCLA is the other recipient.
A true Bruin, Rodriguez earned his B.S. in biophysics and Ph.D. in molecular biology at UCLA. Before joining the UCLA faculty in 2016, he was a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Professor David Eisenberg. He currently holds the Howard Reiss Development Chair in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.
Rodriguez’s group investigates the atomic structures of proteins that misfold and aggregate, such as prions and α-synuclein, which are implicated in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. His group develops and applies advanced structural biology tools—most notably MicroED (microelectron diffraction), cryo-electron microscopy, and related methods—to resolve high-resolution molecular architectures of tiny protein crystals and fibrils that are difficult or impossible to study by conventional techniques. The objective of their research is to understand the transitions from benign to pathogenic forms, reveal the detailed molecular interactions (such as hydrogen bonding networks) that stabilize aggregates, and ultimately help in designing interventions that can block or reverse the toxic aggregation process.
In April of this year, Rodriguez and Eisenberg were featured in a UCLA Newsroom article about World Parkinson’s Day. In 2020, Rodriguez spoke about his research and the importance of diversity and inclusion in the sciences in a UCLA Physical Sciences video, and he was recognized in Cell Press’ list of 100 inspiring Hispanic/Latinx scientists in America. He was also interviewed by science journalist Robyn Williams about his infectious rope-like prion proteins research.
Rodriguez’s many awards and honors include 2020 Sloan Fellow, 2019 Packard Fellow, 2019 UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry McCoy Award, 2018 American Chemical Society Talented 12, 2018 Pew Scholar, 2017 Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Young Investigator, and 2017 Searle Scholar.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penjen@g.ucla.edu.
