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Presenters: James Rubenstein, MD, PhD and John Rubenstein, MD, PhD
James Rubenstein: Professor of Medicine-Residency, UCSF
John Rubenstein: Nina Ireland Distinguished Professor in Child Psychiatry, UCSF
James Rubenstein:
James Rubenstein, MD, PhD, is a hematologist-oncologist, or a specialist in blood disorders. He has particular expertise in treating patients with neurologic complications from cancer, including patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma involving the brain (called central nervous system lymphoma). He also specializes in patients with cancer that has spread to the brain from other parts of the body.
In his research, Rubenstein investigates immunologic tools to improve tumor response to chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and to minimize toxicity from treatment. He is also interested in developing tumor biomarkers to diagnose brain tumors.
Rubenstein earned his medical degree at Weill Cornell Medicine and completed a residency in internal medicine at Stanford Medicine. He earned a doctorate in molecular and cellular neurosciences at the Rockefeller University. He completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology at UCSF, which included training in neuro-oncology.
Rubenstein has won research awards from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the National Cancer Institute. He is a member of the American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology and American Association for Cancer Research.
John Rubenstein:
John Rubenstein, MD, Phd is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco. He also serves as a Nina Ireland Distinguished Professor in Child Psychiatry at the Nina Ireland Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology. His research focuses on the regulatory genes that orchestrate development of the forebrain.
In the mammalian embryo, the forebrain is the portion of the neural tube where primitive cells are organized to form the cerebral cortex, the basal ganglia and other components of the adult brain — the structures of the human brain most involved in key functions such as speech, language, cognition and fine motor skills.
Rubenstein’s lab has demonstrated the role of specific genes in regulating neuronal specification, differentiation, migration and axon growth during embryonic development and on through adult life. His work may help to explain some of the mechanisms underlying human neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.