Jorge Torres, PhD

Jorge Torres, PhD

Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Member, Molecular Biology Institute (MBI)
Member, Biochemistry, Molecular and Structural Biology (BMSB) Graduate Program
Member, Cell and Developmental Biology (CDB) home area, Graduate Programs in Bioscience (GPB)

Languages

English

Scientific Interests

Dr. Jorge Torres studies mitotic spindle formation during cell division and how inhibiting cell division can be used in cancer treatment. His goal is to use large-scale RNA interference, small molecule and cDNA overexpression screens to identify either potential targets for anticancer drug treatment or small molecules that can be used as cancer therapeutics. He uses human cancer 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 and molecules.

Highlighted Publications

Lo YC, Senese S, Li CM, Hu Q, Huang Y, Damoiseaux R, Torres JZ. Large-scale chemical similarity networks for target profiling of compounds identified in cell-based chemical screens. PLoS Comput Biol. 2015 Mar 31;11(3):e1004153. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004153. eCollection 2015 Mar.

Gholkar AA, Senese S, Lo YC, Vides E, Contreras E, Hodara E, Capri J, Whitelegge JP, Torres JZ. The X-Linked-Intellectual-Disability-Associated Ubiquitin Ligase Mid2 Interacts with Astrin and Regulates Astrin Levels to Promote Cell Division. Cell Rep. 2016 Jan 12;14(2):180-8. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2015.12.035. Epub 2015 Dec 31.

Senese S, Lo YC, Huang D, Zangle TA, Gholkar AA, Robert L, Homet B, Ribas A, Summers MK, Teitell MA, Damoiseaux R, Torres JZ. Chemical dissection of the cell cycle: probes for cell biology and anti-cancer drug development. Cell Death Dis. 2014 Oct 16;5:e1462. doi: 10.1038/cddis.2014.420.

Senese S, Cheung K, Lo YC, Gholkar AA, Xia X, Wohlschlegel JA, Torres JZ. A unique insertion in STARD9's motor domain regulates its stability. Mol Biol Cell. 2015 Feb 1;26(3):440-52. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E14-03-0829. Epub 2014 Dec 10.

Torres JZ, Summers MK, Peterson D, Brauer MJ, Lee J, Senese S, Gholkar AA, Lo YC, Lei X, Jung K, Anderson DC, Davis DP, Belmont L, Jackson PK. The STARD9/Kif16a kinesin associates with mitotic microtubules and regulates spindle pole assembly. Cell. 2011 Dec 9;147(6):1309-23. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.11.020.