Elijah Mena, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Assistant Professor School Medical School Department Molecular Biology Biography Elijah Mena, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He received his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. During his graduate training in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Rape, he identified and characterized two key cellular quality control pathways, Dimerization Quality Control and the Reductive Stress Response, both of which are essential for cellular health and whose dysregulation contributes to disease. In 2019, Dr. Mena joined the laboratory of Dr. Stephen Elledge at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. There, he developed a range of genetic screening technologies applicable to the study of protein homeostasis and discovered a new mechanism by which the 26S proteasome selects substrates for degradation. Throughout his graduate and postdoctoral training, Dr. Mena received multiple prestigious fellowships, including those from the National Science Foundation, the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund, and the Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Mena joined the faculty at UT Southwestern in December 2025. His laboratory focuses on understanding how protein degradation is altered in cancer and aging, leveraging innovative genetic, biochemical, and computational approaches. In recognition of his work, he has received a Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) recruitment award and was named an Endowed Scholar in Biomedical Research. Education Undergraduate Massachusetts Inst of Technol (2013), Chemistry Graduate School Uni of California, Berkeley (2019), Molecular & Cell Biology Research Interest Cancer Biology Neurodegeneration Proteasome Protein Aggregation Protein Homeostasis Ubiquitin-Proteasome System Publications Featured Publications Defining E3 ligase-substrate relationships through multiplex CRISPR screening. Timms RT, Mena EL, Leng Y, Li MZ, Tchasovnikarova IA, Koren I, Elledge SJ, Nat Cell Biol 2023 Oct 25 10 1535-1545 Structural basis and regulation of the reductive stress response. Manford AG, Mena EL, Shih KY, Gee CL, McMinimy R, Martínez-González B, Sherriff R, Lew B, Zoltek M, Rodríguez-Pérez F, Woldesenbet M, Kuriyan J, Rape M, Cell 2021 Oct 184 21 5375-5390.e16 Structural basis for dimerization quality control. Mena EL, Jevtic P, Greber BJ, Gee CL, Lew BG, Akopian D, Nogales E, Kuriyan J, Rape M, Nature 2020 Oct 586 7829 452-456 Dimerization quality control ensures neuronal development and survival. Mena EL, Kjolby RAS, Saxton RA, Werner A, Lew BG, Boyle JM, Harland R, Rape M, Science 2018 Oct 362 6411 Degrons: defining the rules of protein degradation. Zhang Z, Mena EL, Timms RT, Koren I, Elledge SJ, Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 2025 Nov 26 11 868-883 Chromosomal structural rearrangements implicate long non-coding RNAs in rare germline disorders. Andersen RE, Alkuraya IF, Ajeesh A, Sakamoto T, Mena EL, Amr SS, Romi H, Kenna MA, Robson CD, Wilch ES, Nalbandian K, Piña-Aguilar R, Walsh CA, Morton CC, Hum Genet 2024 Jul 143 7 921-938 Germline-encoded amino acid-binding motifs drive immunodominant public antibody responses. Shrock EL, Timms RT, Kula T, Mena EL, West AP, Guo R, Lee IH, Cohen AA, McKay LGA, Bi C, Leng Y, Fujimura E, Horns F, Li M, Wesemann DR, Griffiths A, Gewurz BE, Bjorkman PJ, Elledge SJ, Science 2023 Apr 380 6640 eadc9498 ORF10-Cullin-2-ZYG11B complex is not required for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Mena EL, Donahue CJ, Vaites LP, Li J, Rona G, O'Leary C, Lignitto L, Miwatani-Minter B, Paulo JA, Dhabaria A, Ueberheide B, Gygi SP, Pagano M, Harper JW, Davey RA, Elledge SJ, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021 Apr 118 17 Systematic characterization of mutations altering protein degradation in human cancers. Tokheim C, Wang X, Timms RT, Zhang B, Mena EL, Wang B, Chen C, Ge J, Chu J, Zhang W, Elledge SJ, Brown M, Liu XS, Mol Cell 2021 Mar 81 6 1292-1308.e11 Dynamic nuclear polarization at 700 MHz/460 GHz. Barnes AB, Markhasin E, Daviso E, Michaelis VK, Nanni EA, Jawla SK, Mena EL, DeRocher R, Thakkar A, Woskov PP, Herzfeld J, Temkin RJ, Griffin RG, J Magn Reson 2012 Nov 224 1-7 Results 1-10 of 10 1 Honors & Awards Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Recruitment Award (2025) Dana-Farber / Harvard Cancer Center CURE Mentor Appreciation Award (2025) UT Southwestern Endowed Scholar (2025) American Aging Association Paul F. Glenn Award (2024) Chair's Research Award, Brigham and Women's Hospital (2023) NIH National Institute on Aging K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award (2023) HHMI Fellow of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research (2020) Best Student Poster Award, UC Berkeley Cell and Developmental Biology Retreat (2018) National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (2013) UC Berkeley Chancellor's Fellowship (2013) MIT Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Direct Funding (2010) Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge National Finalist (2005) Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge National Finalist (2004)
