Enrique de la Cruz, PhD - Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Head of Branford College at Yale University

When GOOD PEOPLE STEP UP

By Sam Heimowitz.

Branford Head of College and Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Enrique M. De La Cruz’s energy is palpable as soon as he steps into the room — or this year, log into the Zoom room. I first met De La Cruz my first semester at Yale, having come to an event at his Branford residence for first year students. I brought my identical twin brother with me, a Franklin student, and as we traversed the dining room with strawberries in tow, we engaged in conversation with Professor De La Cruz and he told us “no matter who you are, you’re always welcome at Branford.” To this day, this message holds true.

One of De La Cruz’s research projects focuses on the actin cytoskeleton, where his lab is working to understand the physical, mechanical, and material properties of actin polymers. Actin polymers are key to a variety of different processes including the cell’s function and stability, providing forces that allow for migration. De La Cruz explains that central to the force generating process of these cytoskeletal networks is their ability to respond, sustain, and transmit force, and he is particularly interested in how these networks respond to physical forces.

De La Cruz attributes his success to the mentors that have helped him get to where he is today and the mentees that have allowed him to live his life through science, which he explains is “a testament to what can happen when good people step up and take mentoring and advising seriously.”

When De La Cruz was an undergraduate student at Rutgers-Newark, he started to realize just how valuable and irreplaceable kind and dedicated professors really are. He participated in the Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) program, supported by the NIH/NIGMS and directed by Barry Komisaruk — this program is quite similar to the STARS program at Yale — that created opportunities and provided a modest stipend to students from underrepresented backgrounds to work in a lab. Komisaruk and numerous other Rutgers-Newark professors gave De La Cruz the confidence “that he did not have” and pointed him in the right direction to pursue science.

Other important mentors in his life have included his parents who ingrained in him that “when you’re pointed in the right direction, all you have to do is keep walking” and taught him to care for himself and value education. Tom Pollard, his PhD thesis advisor at Johns Hopkins, gave him “something to aspire to” and served as another one of his mentors. Pollard was among the most influential people in his life, not only because of his scientific career, but because of how genuinely he cared for, made room for, and let others who care know that they would always have something for which to work.

Not only have his postdoctoral advisers and colleagues at Yale inspired him, but his students and trainees in his lab have also inspired and impressed him. Their commitment and dedication give him purpose to continue his scientific career.

De La Cruz also recognizes that, as a member of an underrepresented minority community, he has not been spared from discrimination and biases. “Even educated people have flaws,” but he also feels blessed by having a lot of kindhearted, caring, and thoughtful people throughout his life in all of the various places that he has been.

He has come to accept and understand that some of the discrimination he has faced in the past was rooted in naivete and has often come from people that he trusts and knows that care deeply about him. He oftentimes feels obligated to represent, and still occasionally “says yes in situations where he should probably say no,” and feels taxed on many days.

Yet, through all of these challenges, he says that his presence, his contribution, and his visibility offers insight and empowers those younger than him, and that while he has experienced firsthand many forms of discrimination, he has also benefited from the goodwill of the people that are working to fix the problems in the system.

Not only is De La Cruz incredibly excited and hopeful for the future of his field, as with advances in technology, more accurate and sensitive measurements can be made and “a lot of what we think we knew we didn’t really understand as thought as we did,” but also because he is delighted to see that growing numbers of people share his commitment to improve the still flawed system.

More broadly, his specific scientific field is becoming more integrated, as different disciplines and descriptive methods are coalescing and beginning to provide a unified view of how biological systems move using the cytoskeleton.

Thus, De La Cruz, on many fronts, is hopeful for the future.