JeffreyRubensMD

Summary

• I am a physician-scientist in the Department of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. My research focuses on developing new, targeted therapies to improve survival in deadly pediatric brain tumors. Our group works to identify molecular pathways that aggressive pediatric brain tumors uniquely rely on to drive their tumorigenicity and drug resistance and describe the translatable efficacy of targeting these pathways to improve pediatric brain tumor survival. Our research groups has developed an important and unique niche in pediatric brain tumor research emphasizing epigenetics, metabolomics, tumor biology, and drug discovery. Our work has identified a reliance in MYC-drive AT/RT on glutamine metabolism for tumor growth and survival. We have demonstrated that the glutamine analogue, DON precisely targets MYC-driven AT/RT to improve survival in orthotopic models. We have also demonstrated a reliance on the mTOR pathway in AT/RT and the survival benefit treating mouse models with dual mTORC1/2 inhibitors. As our group works to translate these findings into new clinical trials, we continue to work in the lab to identify novel targets and develop new therapies to help better treat patients suffering from these deadly diseases.
  
  Complete list of publications: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/jeffrey.rubens.1/bibliography/public/