Autophagy, a guardian against neurodegeneration

David Rubinsztein

After completing his basic medical training, Dr. Rubinsztein did a BSc (Med) Hons and PhD at the Medical Research Council/University of Cape Town Unit for the Cell Biology of Atherosclerosis. He came to Cambridge in 1993 as a senior registrar in Genetic Pathology. In 1997, he acquired his Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training and was awarded a 6 year Glaxo Wellcome Fellowship. In 2001, he was awarded an MRC Programme grant and a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellowship, which were both renewed in 2006. He was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2004 and was promoted to Professor of Molecular Neurogenetics at the University of Cambridge in 2005.

His research, which is based in the Department of Medical Genetics in the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, is focused on trying to understand the processes underlying the pathology in Huntington's disease and related conditions associated with intracellular aggregates. He is trying to use the understanding of the pathobiology of these diseases to develop therapeutic strategies and in this context has a particular interest in autophagy. His group uses a range of approaches to address these aims, from cell biology to fly and mouse models.