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Public Profile

Berish Rubin, PhD
Berish Rubin, PhD

    Dr. Berish Rubin is a professor and former chair (1989-2004) of the department of biological sciences at Fordham University in New York. Dr. Rubin also served as an associate editor of Cancer Research from 1986 to 1992. Dr. Rubin received his BA in biology at the City College of New York and a PhD in biology at the Graduate School of the City University in New York.

    Dr. Rubin's research effort currently focuses on the molecular biology of familial dysautonomia (FD) also known as Riley-Day Syndrome and hereditary sensory neuropathy Type III-- an autosomal recessive disorder that affects the development and survival of sensory, sympathetic and some parasympathetic neurons.

    In the summer of 2000, Dr. Rubin's laboratory directed its efforts on identifying the genetic cause of FD. The mutations responsible for FD were found to occur in a gene encoding a protein termed IKAP. These findings were published in the American Journal of Human Genetics [Anderson, S.L., Coli, R., Daly, I.W., Kichula, E.A., Rork, M.J. Volpi, S.A., Ekstein, J. and Rubin, B.Y. (2001) Familial Dysautonomia is caused by mutations of the IKAP gene. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 68:753-758]. With the identification of the mutations responsible for FD, genetic testing has been established by several academic and commercial laboratories and couples can now be screened to determine their carrier status and their risk of having children with FD. Large scale studies done to date demonstrate that the carrier frequency for FD is approximately the same as that of Tay Sachs in those of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. It is expected that, with time, there will be a reduction in the number of children born with FD.

    Schedule28 Mar 2024