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During her graduate studies at Stanford University, Rubins was part of the research team that developed the first animal model of human smallpox.
Since smallpox only infects people, historically there has been no way to study it other than in a Petri dish. As a result, no one has been able to analyze how the virus interacts with the host organism. But Rubins and her colleagues succeeded in creating an animal model in the primate Cynomolgus macaques, publishing their results in 2004 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Rubins’s primary contribution to the program was developing a microarray platform in which she could study how the mammalian immune system responds to this pathogen. She found that in the presence of smallpox, immune cells release an alarmingly high number of cytokines proteins that act as intracellular regulators during an immune response. This process resembled the blood condition sepsis, in which such a large amount of cytokines can cause organ failure.
Rubins found that one particular cytokine, called TNF alpha, was missing from the blood samples, which was surprising since TNF alpha is one of the most common immune system proteins. This led the research team to conclude that smallpox codes for a TNF alpha decoy receptor that inhibits TNF alpha signaling and, as a result, is able to fool the immune system.
Rubins is currently studying tissue culture models of vaccinia. She is also collaborating with the U.S. Army to develop therapies for Ebola virus, as well as conducting field studies in the Democratic Republic of Congo to research monkeypox.
All live viruses Rubins works with remain at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia and the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, in Frederick, Maryland.
Rubins received her PhD from Stanford University in 2006, and her bachelor’s degree from University of California, San Diego, in 1999.
Selected Publications
Rubins, KH, Hensley, LE, Jahrling, PB, Whitney, AR, Huggins, JW, Owen, A, LeDuc, JW, Brown, PO, and Relman, DA The host response to smallpox: analysis of the gene expression program in peripheral blood cells in a nonhuman primate model. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Oct 19;101(42):15190-5.
Jahrling PB, Hensley LE, Martinez MJ, Leduc JW, Rubins KH, Relman DA, Huggins JW. Exploring the potential of variola virus infection of cynomolgus macaques as a model for human smallpox. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Oct 19;101(42):15196-200.
Rubins K, Relman DA. Images in clinical medicine. Progression of the lesion at the site of inoculation after smallpox vaccination. N Engl J Med. 2003 Jan 30;348(5):414.
Carlson HA, Masukawa KM, Rubins K, Bushman FD, Jorgensen WL, Lins RD, Briggs JM, McCammon JA. Developing a dynamic pharmacophore model for HIV-1 integrase. J Med Chem. 2000 Jun 1;43(11):2100-14. | 