Gerald M. Rubin

Gerald M. Rubin

Born 1950
Fields Genetics
Institutions Janelia Farm Research Campus Howard Hughes Medical Institute University of California, Berkeley
Notable awards George W. Beadle Medal 2003[1]

Gerald M. Rubin (born 1950) is an American biologist, notable for pioneering the use of transposable P elements in genetics, and for leading the public project to sequence the Drosophila melanogaster genome. Related to his genomics work, Rubin's lab is notable for development of genomics tools and whole-genome studies of gene regulation. Rubin also serves as Vice President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Executive Director of the Janelia Farm Research Campus.[2][3][4]

Contents

Biography

Rubin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1950, attending the Boston Latin School. Rubin completed his undergraduate degree in biology at MIT, working at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory during the summer.[5][6] He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge, at the MRC in 1974[7], sequencing yeast RNA. He did postdoctoral work at Stanford University with David Hogness[8].

Rubin's first faculty position was at Harvard Medical School, followed by the Carnegie Institution of Washington; in 1983 he accepted a faculty appointment at the University of California, Berkeley. He was appointed a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator in 1987. He is currently the MacArthur Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Development, in Berkeley's Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.

Rubin has taken a leading role in a number of high-profile biology projects. As the director of the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project, he led the public effort to sequence Drosophila melanogaster.[9] As Vice President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Rubin led the development of HHMI's Janelia Farm Research Campus, an independent biomedical research institute in Virginia.[5][6]

His lab is particularly known for its development of genomics tools, studies of gene regulation, and other genome-wide research.

Selected papers

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b Orr-Weaver, T. (2003). "The 2003 George W. Beadle Medal; Gerald M. Rubin and Allan C. Spradling". Genetics 164 (4): 1248–1249. PMC 1462668. PMID 15106662. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1462668.  edit
  2. ^ Rubin, G. M. (2006). "Janelia Farm: An Experiment in Scientific Culture". Cell 125 (2): 209–212. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2006.04.005. PMID 16630805.  edit
  3. ^ http://mcb.berkeley.edu/faculty/GEN/rubing.html Rubin faculty profile]
  4. ^ http://www.sciencewatch.com/sept-oct99/sw_sept-oct99_page3.htm HMI's Gerald M. Rubin: The Benefits of Genomics, ScienceWatch, v.10, n.5 (Sept./Oct. 1999)
  5. ^ a b UPI, "Gerald Rubin: Science Far Too Conservative", April 20, 2006 (discussing Janelia Farm).
  6. ^ a b Tim Studt, "Architect of the Future: Refocusing on Basic Research", R&D Magazine.
  7. ^ Rubin, G. (1974). "Three forms of the 5.8-S ribosomal RNA species in Saccharomyces cerevisiae". European journal of biochemistry / FEBS 41 (1): 197–202. PMID 4593336.  edit
  8. ^ Rubin, G.; Hogness, D. (1975). "Effect of heat shock on the synthesis of low molecular weight RNAs in drosophilia: Accumulation of a novel form of 5S RNA". Cell 6 (2): 207–213. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(75)90011-2. PMID 810246.  edit
  9. ^ Adams, M.; Celniker, S.; Holt, R.; Evans, C.; Gocayne, J.; Amanatides, P.; Scherer, S.; Li, P. et al. (2000). "The genome sequence of Drosophila melanogaster". Science 287 (5461): 2185–2195. Bibcode 2000Sci...287.2185.. doi:10.1126/science.287.5461.2185. PMID 10731132.  edit
  10. ^ Robert Sanders, "UC Berkeley's Gerald Rubin shares AAAS prize with Celera's Craig Venter for sequencing genome of the fruit fly", UC Berkeley Campus News, Feb. 20, 2001.