Rubin Lab | HSCRB

Lee Rubin, Ph.D.

Lee Rubin investigates the key molecular mediators of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, with the ultimate goal of finding effective preclinical therapeutic candidates.

Research Scientists

Feodor Price, Ph.D., Scientist

Feo’s research is translational in nature and geared towards studying how adult skeletal muscle stem cells are involved in regulating muscle regeneration.

Kris Holton, Ph.D., Bioinformatician

Postdoctoral Fellows

Mary Rose Branch, Ph.D.

As a postdoctoral fellow in the Rubin lab, Mary Rose hopes to investigate cellular mechanisms and signaling pathways involved in brain aging and rejuvenation using human iPSC models.

Caterina is studying mechanisms of brain aging primarily using aged mouse models. Her work focuses on understanding how different manipulations such as heterochronic parabiosis, GDF11 administration and gut microbiome depletion can counteract the aging process. The aim of her research is to identify candidates that could be targets for clinical applications in humans.

Richard Giadone, Ph.D.

Rich uses human iPSCs and mouse models to understand and manipulate proteostasis in disease and aging.

Adelaida Kolaj, Ph.D.

Junghyun Lee, Ph.D.

Junghyun is studying the pathways regulating blood-brain barrier during development and aging. His work is focused on developing in vitro model of brain endothelial cells using human iPSCs.

James Poteracki, Ph.D.

Monika Saxena, Ph.D.

Monika is interested in understanding how aging affects the blood-brain barrier functions by focusing on identifying the molecular pathways that drive this process in the brain. Additionally, her research investigates the beneficial effects of systemic GDF11 treatment on the aged brain. Her research goal is to uncover mechanisms to mitigate age-related changes in the blood-brain barrier using aged mice and human iPSCs-derived cell models.

Kaylee Wells, Ph.D.

Kaylee is investigating the mechanism of brain aging. Through transgenic and aged mouse models, she is studying the function of a protein, GDF11 within the brain. The aim of her research is to provide a molecular understanding of GDF11’s function and better inform its potential as a therapeutic.

Graduate Students

Kiwi Florido

Ph.D. Candidate, Harvard University; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Research Assistants

Hannah Bentz

Hannah studies the relationship between myelination and neurodegeneration, exploring how Growth Differentiation Factor 11 might alleviate the harmful effects of demyelination observed in neurodegenerative diseases. She is particularly interested in the sexual dimorphisms of demyelinating diseases.

Mahitha Juttu

Blen Kedir, M.S.

Blen studies the mechanisms of brain aging through her work on devising a ‘dish model’ of the aged and diseased human brain. To this end, she investigates iPSC-derived human brain organoids using molecular biology and ‘omics’ techniques. She adores plants, loves coffee, and aspires to be an academic physician.

Stephanie Ouzikov, M.S.

Fellow

Undergraduate Research Students

Cristina DeMeo

Class of 2025

James Holliday

Class of 2027. James is studying the molecular regulation of GDF11 with the aim of identifying protein candidates for age-related modulation of neurogenesis and myelination. This is to gain a more rigorous understanding of how capabilities for neural rejuvenation change with time.

Isabel Li

Class of 2027. Isabel is studying the role of GDF11 in myelination and neurogenesis. Ultimately, she aims to understand how GDF11 can be used as a therapeutic against a broad range of neurodegenerative conditions.

Sayalee Patankar

Class of 2025. Sayalee is studying the effects of gut microbiome depletion on the brain. She is specifically investigating how microbiome depletion influences proteostasis, senescence, and DNA methylation and hopes to identify targets in these pathways for therapeutic intervention.

Alvira Tyagi

Class of 2025. Alvira is studying the link between the protein GDF11 and myelination-related signaling and pathways, with a particular focus on how GDF11 influences myelin stability and structure. Based on her results, she aims to understand if GDF11 could serve as a clinical therapeutic target for demyelinating and aging-related diseases.

Cerena Wu

Class of 2025. Cerena is studying the role of GDF11 and other proteins in oligodendrocytes and additional cell types. She hopes to further our understanding of these proteins and how they can help us target aging-related diseases.

Recent Alumni

Stanley Gill

PhD Student

Francesco Limone

Francesco is a visiting PhD student at HSCRB and the Stanley Center at Broad Institute. His work focuses on the understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying neuroinflammation, neurological disorders and aging using human iPSC-derived neuronal cells, mouse models, and computational approaches.

Brittany Mayweather

Graduate Student Brittany’s research investigates the physiological role of endogenous GDF11 during adult neurogenesis and the therapeutic implications of manipulating GDF11 signaling.

Michelle Watts

Graduate Student Michelle is a senior graduate student in Harvard’s Biological and Biomedical Sciences program. Her research focuses on developing predictive models of ALS using patient cells to investigate convergent protective mechanisms behind therapeutic compounds.

Ioannis Gampierakis, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Xiaoyu Hu, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Ceren Ozek, Ph.D.

Ceren is a postdoctoral fellow studying the beneficial vascular and neural effects of GDF11 on healthy aging and neurodegenerative diseases, specifically Alzheimer’s Disease, using transgenic mice as model organisms.

Francesca Rapino, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow Francesca is a postdoctoral fellow at HSCRB and at the Broad Institute. Her work seeks to understand the role of complement component in schizophrenia, using iPSC derived neuronal cultures and small molecule screening.

Hye Young Shin, Ph.D.

Hye Young Shin studies early changes during human motor neuron degeneration, using automated live cell imaging. She also uses long-term, live imaging of motor neurons differentiated from hESCs and iPSCs for survival assay development and its application in drug screening.

Chen Wu, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow Chen Wu is looking for a novel and specific drug to improve the survival of motor neurons for ALS therapeutics. By studying the targets of the drug, he hopes to explain the mechanism and how the downstream signal pathways work.

Methodios Ximerakis, Ph.D.

Methodios is looking to identify cellular and molecular mechanisms that trigger brain aging and rejuvenation by using single-cell transcriptomics.

Richard Krolewski, M.D., Ph.D.

Rich is a movement disorders neurologist using dopamine neurons made from the iPSCs of Parkinson’s Disease patients to better understand how gene/environment interactions influence disease pathogenesis and inform new treatment options.

Scott Lipnick, Ph.D.

Scott Lipnick is a principal scientist in the Rubin Lab and an Instructor in Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School. He is also a member of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Assessment Technology and Continuous Health (CATCH).

Kathleen Pfaff, Ph.D.

Kathy is the Senior Research Manager in the Rubin Laboratory. She advises individuals and teams on their research projects, serves as the liaison between the lab and external collaborators, and provides operational and financial oversight.

Gizem Rizki, Ph.D.

Gizem is a research scientist who specializes in assay development and high-throughput screening and runs the screening operations in the lab. She collaborates with screeners to set up and execute small molecule screens to identify therapeutic targets of neurodegenerative, neuropsychiatric, and other diseases as well as unravel biological insights into disease mechanisms through screening.

Rubin Lab People