Unravelling proteinopathies: an interview with David Rubinsztein

David Rubinsztein is currently professor of Molecular Neurogenetics at the University of Cambridge, UK and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow. He is based in the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, where he is currently the Deputy Director. He started his studies in medicine in Cape Town, South Africa, and was initially interested in both clinical and research work. During his PhD, he discovered himself truly passionate about cell biology and genetics of disease and moved to Cambridge, where he specialised in Genetic Pathology, after which he received a 6-year Glaxo-Wellcome Fellowship to investigate mechanisms of protein misfolding and aggregation in Huntington's disease and other proteinopathies. Since then, he has been committed to lab research and has been a leading scientist in elucidating the roles of autophagy in neurodegeneration. In his lab, he combines cell biology tools with animal studies to elucidate the potential of autophagy manipulation as a strategy to eliminate toxic misfolded and aggregated proteins and treat neurodegenerative diseases. He has been recently appointed as academic lead PI for the Alzheimer's Research UK Drug Discovery Institute in Cambridge, whose goal is to develop disease-modifying treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. In this interview, David tells us how he developed his career as an independent scientist, sharing his experience and views about the scientific progress in our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases and in developing potential therapeutics.