Investigator Bio

Joshua B. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Hematology and Oncology
Developmental Biology and Genetics
Joshua B. Rubin Research Lab

I am interested in the biology and treatment of pediatric brain tumors. In my laboratory we are using the model of normal central nervous system development to help identify molecules that regulate the movements, proliferation and survival of neural progenitor cells. We suspect that these same molecules will influence the infiltrative and metastatic behavior, as well as the proliferation and survival of brain cancer cells. Through this approach, we have identified two molecules, the chemokine CXCL12 (SDF-1a) and its receptor CXCR4 that are critical to normal cerebellar development and whose activation is necessary for growth of medulloblastoma, a neuronal tumor that is the most common brain tumor of childhood and glioblastoma multiforme, a malignant astrocytic tumor. These observations serve as the basis for a wide range of research regarding the role of CXCR4 in tumori-genesis in the CNS and the nature of the intracellular signals that support these functions. These observations also serve as the foundation for designing a clinical trial of CXCR4 antagonist therapy for brain tumors that we hope to have underway in the near future. This overlaps with my other research interest, which is in the clinical development of novel therapies for brain tumors. In the multidisciplinary Pediatric Brain Tumor Program here at St. Louis Children's Hospital, we are working to develop and deliver innovative therapies to children with brain tumors.

Education

• B.S., Yale University, 1982
• M.Sc., Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1992
• Ph.D., Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1994
• M.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1994

Training

• Resident, Children's Hospital, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, 1994-97
• Fellowship in Hematology/Oncology, Children's Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, 1997-2000

Selected Publications - CLICK HERE