Javier Diaz Alonso

Biography

Javier Diaz Alonso, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology and the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms regulating AMPA receptor trafficking and synaptic plasticity, with particular emphasis on understanding how these processes contribute to learning, memory, and neuropsychiatric disorders. Diaz Alonso received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Complutense University in Madrid in 2014, where his doctoral work examined the role of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor during cerebral cortex development. He completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco under the mentorship of Roger A. Nicoll, M.D., where he developed novel approaches to study AMPA receptor function.

Diaz Alonso has received an NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00), a NARSAD Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and a Whitehall Foundation grant supporting his work on endocannabinoid signaling at inhibitory synapses. His laboratory employs molecular, electrophysiological, and behavioral approaches to investigate how intracellular and extracellular protein interactions regulate synaptic transmission and plasticity. His work has challenged established models of long-term potentiation by demonstrating that LTP can occur independently of the GluA1 C-terminal tail, and has identified novel transsynaptic mechanisms involving auxiliary subunits that regulate AMPA receptor localization and function.

Since establishing his laboratory at UC Irvine in 2020, Diaz Alonso has mentored numerous undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows, with several trainees receiving competitive fellowships including NIH T32 awards and the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship. He serves as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, has served as an ad hoc reviewer for NIH and NSF grant panels, and coordinates the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology seminar series. His research has been published in journals including Neuron, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, eLife, and Cell Reports.

Education

• PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Complutense University, 2014
• BSc in Biochemistry, Complutense University, 2008

Distinctions

• Fellow, UC Irvine Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 2020
• K99/R00 NIH Pathway to Independence Award, 2018
• NARSAD BBRF Young Investigator Award, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, 2021
• Federation of European Biochemical Societies Short Term Fellowship, 2013
• Best publication, Spanish Society for Cannabinoid Research, 2015, 2017
• Doctoral Fellowship, PFIS Program, Spanish Carlos III Health Research Institute, 2009-2013
• Best PhD Thesis in the School of Biology, Complutense University, 2014