Rubin Lab

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

Jane is the Rubin Lab Administrator, providing logistical and organizational support to Lee Rubin and members of the laboratory. Jane earned a B.S in Social Work at Syracuse University, and a B.F.A at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt).

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

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

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.

Class of 2025

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.

Class of 2025

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.

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.

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.

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

Sabrina is studying protein quality control machinery in the aging brain using human iPSC-derived and in vivo mouse models.

Class of 2023. Kavya is studying the role of KLF6 in the aging of the blood-brain barrier.

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.

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.