Gerald Mayer Rubin (born 1950) is an American biologist, notable for pioneering the use of transposable P elements in

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

, and for leading the public project to

sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is calle ...

the ''

Drosophila melanogaster ''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (the taxonomic order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the " vinegar fly" or "pomace fly". Starting with ...

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding g ...

. Related to his genomics work, Rubin's lab is notable for development of genetic and genomics tools and studies of signal transduction and

gene regulation Regulation of gene expression, or gene regulation, includes a wide range of mechanisms that are used by cells to increase or decrease the production of specific gene products (protein or RNA). Sophisticated programs of gene expression are wi ...

. Rubin also serves as a vice president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and executive director of the

Janelia Research Campus Janelia Research Campus is a scientific research campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute that opened in October 2006. The campus is located in Loudoun County, Virginia, near the town of Ashburn. It is known for its scientific research and m ...

Education and early life

Rubin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1950, attending the Boston Latin School. Rubin completed his undergraduate degree in biology at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

, working at

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is one of 68 institutions supported by the Cancer Centers ...

during the summer.UPI
"Gerald Rubin: Science Far Too Conservative
, April 20, 2006 (discussing Janelia Farm). He completed his Ph.D. at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, working at the

Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

in 1974, for studies on

5.8S ribosomal RNA In molecular biology, the 5.8S ribosomal RNA (5.8S rRNA) is a non-coding RNA component of the large subunit of the eukaryotic ribosome and so plays an important role in protein translation. It is transcribed by RNA polymerase I as part of the ...

supervised by

Sydney Brenner Sydney Brenner (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to work ...

Career and research

Following his PhD, Rubin did

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

at Stanford University with David Hogness. Rubin's first faculty position was at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

, followed by the

Carnegie Institution of Washington The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...

; in 1983 he accepted an appointment as the John D. MacArthur Professor of Genetics at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He was appointed a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator in 1987. He is currently the MacArthur Professor of Genetics emeritus, Genomics and Development, in Berkeley's Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Rubin has taken a leading role in a number of high-profile scientific research projects. As the director of the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project, he led the public effort to sequence ''

''. As Vice President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Rubin led the development of HHMI's

, an independent biomedical research institute in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. His lab is particularly known for its development of genomics tools, studies of

, and other genome-wide research. He was one of the three scientific founders of

Exelixis Exelixis, Inc. is a genomics-based drug discovery company located in Alameda, California, and the producer of Cometriq, a treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for medullary thyroid cancer with clinical activity in sev ...

in 1994; the company's original business plan was to exploit genomic research in ''Drosophila'' and other model organism to discover

biological target A biological target is anything within a living organism to which some other entity (like an endogenous ligand or a drug) is directed and/or binds, resulting in a change in its behavior or function. Examples of common classes of biological targets ...

s that could be used in drug discovery.

Awards and honours

Rubin has won numerous awards including: *

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

(1971) *Phi Lambda Epsilon (1971) * United States Churchill Foundation Fellow (1971-1973) *

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

(NSF), predoctoral Fellow (1971-1974) * Helen Hay Whitney Fellow (1974-1976) *AAAS-

Newcomb Cleveland Prize The Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is annually awarded to author(s) of outstanding scientific paper published in the Research Articles or Reports sections of ''Science''. Established in 192 ...

(with Allan C. Spradling for their papers describing germ-line transformation of Drosophila) (1983) * Co-winner,

Passano Foundation The Passano Foundation, established in 1945, provides an annual award to a research scientist whose work – done in the United States – is thought to have immediate practical benefits. Many Passano laureates have subsequently won the Nobel Priz ...

Young Scientist Award (1983) *

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry The Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry was established in 1934. Consisting of a bronze medal and honorarium, its purpose is to stimulate fundamental research in biological chemistry by scientists not over thirty-eight years of age. The Award i ...

(1985) * Co-winner, National Academy of Sciences U.S. Steel Foundation Award in Molecular Biology (1985) * Genetics Society of America Medal (1986) * Elected a

Member of the National Academy of Sciences Membership of the National Academy of Sciences is an award granted to scientists that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the United States judges to have made “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research”. Membership ...

USA (1987) * Elected a

Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are elected ...

(1992) * Fellow,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

(1992) * Fellow,

American Academy of Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

(1992) *

Howard Taylor Ricketts Howard Taylor Ricketts (February 9, 1871 – May 3, 1910) was an American pathologist after whom the family Rickettsiaceae and the order Rickettsiales are named. He was born in Findlay, Ohio. In the early part of his career, Ricketts undertook ...

Award from The

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

(1993) *AAAS-

, AAAS (with

Craig Venter John Craig Venter (born October 14, 1946) is an American biotechnologist and businessman. He is known for leading one of the first draft sequences of the human genome and assembled the first team to transfect a cell with a synthetic chromosome. ...

, Mark Adams, and Susan Celniker) for his March 24, 2000, review paper on sequencing the ''Drosophila'' genome (2000) * Member, Institute of Medicine (2002) *George W. Beadle Medal (with Allan C. Spradling) (2003) *R&D Magazine Scientist of the Year 2006

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubin, Gerald Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Stanford University staff Harvard Medical School faculty Jewish American scientists University of California, Berkeley faculty Living people 1950 births Alumni of the University of Cambridge Foreign Members of the Royal Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Biotechnologists 21st-century American biologists Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization 21st-century American Jews Members of the National Academy of Medicine