Multiple myeloma is an aggressive, incurable blood disease with poor survival rates and approximately 20,000 cases per year in the United States.  While therapeutic improvements have been made in the last decade, the disease remains incurable and the patients eventually succumb after becoming refractory to currently available treatments.

CRI postdoctoral fellow Dr. Diego Acosta-Alvear is working to discover new therapeutic targets in multiple myeloma.  To accomplish this, he is studying the unfolded protein response (UPR), a critical cellular mechanism involved in cell growth, communication, and survival.