Department/College/UnitPhysical & Biological Sciences Division

TitleProfessor
Vice Chair for Undergraduate Programming

AffiliationFaculty

Web SiteRubin

Primary Office LocationPhysical Sciences Building
262

Additional Location(s)Physical Sciences Bldg 262 (Office)
Physical Sciences Bldg 298 (Lab)

Mail StopChemistry

Biography, Education and Training

B.A. Columbia University
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
Postdoctoral Fellow, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Summary of Expertise

Biomolecular mechanisms of cell-cycle regulation and cancer; structural biology and biochemistry; macromolecular x-ray crystallography; nuclear magnetic resonance

Research Interests

Our broad research interests are in understanding the biochemical mechanisms that control the cell cycle. Cell growth and division are carefully coordinated by a shifting network of biomolecular interactions. Protein interactions regulate enzymatic activities responsible for key cell cycle events such as DNA replication, chromosome segregation, and cytokinesis. These events have strict spatial and temporal requirements for proper cell cycle function, and deregulation of protein interaction networks is commonly associated with aberrant cell proliferation and cancer. Understanding mechanisms of cell cycle control requires a detailed molecular picture of protein-protein interactions and how these interactions regulate enzymatic function and cellular architecture. Our laboratory seeks to elucidate the biochemical determinants of protein interaction affinity and specificity and how these factors are affected by regulatory modifications to protein composition and structure. We apply a variety of structural and biochemical techniques to learn in molecular detail how structural changes and chemical modifications affect biological function.

Selected Publications

Click here for PubMed list of Rubin Lab Publications

Select recent publications:

Barrett A.K., Shingare M.R., Rechtsteiner A., Rodriguez K.M., Le Q.N., Wijeratne T.U., Mitchell C.E., Membreno M.W., Rubin S.M.*, Müller G.A.* HDAC activity is dispensable for repression of cell-cycle genes by DREAM and E2F:RB complexes. Nat Commun. 2024 May 24;15(1):4450.

Tambo C.S., Tripathi S., Perera B.G.K., Maly D.J., Bridges A.J., Kiss G., Rubin S.M. Biolayer interferometry assay for cyclin-dependent kinase-cyclin association reveals diverse effects of Cdk2 inhibitors on cyclin binding kinetics. ACS Chem Biol. 2023 Feb 17;18(2):431-440.

Wijeratne TU, Guiley KZ, Lee H-W, Müller GA, and Rubin SM. B-Myb association with DNA is modulated by its negative regulatory domain and Cdk phosphorylation. J Biol Chem. 2022 Sep;298(9):102319.

Asthana A, Ramanan P, Hirschi A, Guiley KZ, Wijeratne TU, Shelansky R, Doody MJ, Narasimhan H, Boeger H, Tripathi S, Müller GA, Rubin SM. The MuvB complex binds and stabilizes nucleosomes downstream of the transcription start site of cell-cycle dependent genes. Nat Commun. 2022 Jan 26;13(1):526. 

Rubin SM, Sage J, Skotheim JM. Integrating Old and New Paradigms of G1/S Control. Mol Cell. 2020 Oct 15;80(2):183-192.

Guiley KZ, Stevenson JW, Lou K, Barkovich KJ, Kumarasamy V, Wijeratne TU, Bunch KL, Tripathi S, Knudsen ES, Witkiewicz AK, Shokat KM, Rubin SM. p27 allosterically activates cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and antagonizes palbociclib inhibition.  Science. 2019 Dec 13;366(6471).

Marceau AH, Brison CM, Nerli S, Arsenault HE, McShan AC, Chen E, Lee HW, Benanti JA, Sgourakis NG, Rubin SM. An order-to-disorder structural switch activates the FoxM1 transcription factor. Elife. 2019 May 28;8.