John Rubinstein

Title: Senior Scientist, Molecular Medicine

Designations: PhD

Phone: 416-813-7255

U of T Positions: Professor, Departments of Biochemistry and Medical Biophysics

Biography

John Rubinstein received his PhD from Cambridge University where he worked in Medical Research Council laboratories under the supervision of Sir John E. Walker (Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1997) and Dr. Richard Henderson (Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 2017). Dr. Rubinstein was a post-doctoral research associate at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology before returning to Canada for a National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) post-doctoral fellowship at the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research. He joined the Research Institute of The Hospital for Sick Children in 2006.

Research

The Rubinstein laboratory uses and develops tools, especially the method of electron cryomicroscopy (cryo-EM), to study the structure and function of biological molecules. These tools allow us to understand the molecular machines involved in the flow of biological energy in cells. We are investigating how mycobacteria, the pathogens that cause tuberculosis (TB) and other infections, extract energy from their environment, and working with partners to find new drugs to treat TB and other nontuberculosis mycobacterial (NTM) infections. We are also studying how neurons use energy to communicate with each other, a process that can go wrong in epilepsy and other neurological conditions.

Education and experience

2003–2005: Postdoctoral Fellow, Banting and Best Department of Medical Research, University of Toronto, Canada
2002–2003: Postdoctoral Fellow, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, U.K.
1998–2001: PhD, Medical Research Council (LMB and DHNU), University of Cambridge, U.K.
1994–1998: B.Sc., College of Physical and Engineering Science, University of Guelph, Canada

Achievements

2024: Elected Fellow, Royal Sosciety of Canada (FRSC)
2021–2028: Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Electron Cryomicroscopy
2020: Doctorate of Philosophy honoris causa -Stockholm University
2020: National Lecturer - Biophysical Society of Canada
2014–2021: Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Electron cryomicroscopy
2014: GE Healthcare New Investigator Award – Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences
2013: Burton Medal - Microscopy Society of America
2007–2012: New Investigator Award - Canadian Institutes of Health Research