Farah D Lubin

Farah D. Lubin is an American neuroscientist and Professor of Neurobiology and Cell, Developmental, and Integrative Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham within the Heersink School of Medicine. Lubin is the Principal Investigator of the Lubin Lab which explores the epigenetic mechanisms underlying cognition and how these mechanisms are altered in disease states such as epilepsy and neurodegeneration. Lubin discovered the role of NF-κB in fear memory reconsolidation and also uncovered a novel role for epigenetic regulation of BDNF during long-term memory formation and in epilepsy leading to memory loss. Lubin is a champion for diversity at UAB as the Director of the Roadmap Scholar Program and as a faculty mentor for several institutional and national programs to increase retention of underrepresented minorities in STEM.

Early life and education Lubin grew up in New York and attended high school in New York City. While in high school, she worked as a nursing assistant in New York City during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. At the time she had a desire to pursue a career in medicine, but her experience in the clinic showed her that academia and science are where cures are discovered. Lubin inhibited integrin signalling in epithelial cells and exposed them to proinflammatory cytokines. Lubin explored how glutamate signalling is coupled to nuclear factor-kappa B expression and transcriptional regulation in the hippocampus. She found that kainate, a glutamate analog, elicited activation of NF-κB via the classical IkB kinase pathway and both ERK and PI3K were implicated in regulation of transcription via NF-κB in hippocampal area CA3. She found that fear memory retrieval activates the NK-kB signalling pathway and leads to epigenetic modifications of the gene promoters in the hippocampus via IKKa-mediated mechanisms. She found that bdnf DNA methylation altered bdnf transcription and that blocking BDNF expression in the hippocampus resulted in impaired fear memory consolidation. She was then promoted to Associate Professor and now holds appointments in the Comprehensive Center for Healthy Aging, the Comprehensive Neuroscience Center, the Center for Glial Biology and Medicine, the Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics, the Civitan International Research Center, and the Center for Craniofacial, Oral, and Dental Disorders. In 2017, Lubin became co-director of Research Training for the NIH/NINDS Mentored Experiences in Research Instruction, and Teaching (MERIT) Program which supports postdoctoral fellows at UAB in achieving their career goals. Lubin also serves on the admissions committee for the graduate program in Neuroscience and is a member of the advisory board for the Medical Scientists Training Program. She has found that transcription implicated in memory formation is tightly regulated by DNA methylation in the hippocampus. She found that histone methylation is actively regulated in the adult hippocampus and that methylation is required for the long-term consolidation of fear memories. Her findings supported the link between methylation and hydroxymethylation in gene transcription associated with memory retrieval in the hippocampus. They detected aberrant DNA methylation patterns at the bdnf gene in rat models of epilepsy and investigated how these might be impacting memory formation. Lubin is now the co-director of the program. In this role, Lubin oversees and coordinates graduate student mentoring, social and networking events, workshops and other initiatives to support underrepresented graduate students in neuroscience. She serves as a faculty mentor in the program to guide students to career success in neuroscience and she also co-organizes the yearly NEURAL Conference to bring together underrepresented minority students from across the country to share their research and scientific accomplishments.

Awards and honors

2020 Dean's Excellence Award Winner in Diversity 2012 Health Services Foundation Award 2010-2011 McNulty Civitan Scientist 2008 FASEB Professional Development and Enrichment Award 2004 American Epilepsy Society and Milken Family Foundation Announce Epilepsy Award Recipient

Select publications

Sint Jago SC, Lubin FD. 2020 Epigenetic Therapeutic Intervention for a Rare Epilepsy Disorder. Epilepsy Currents. 1535759720904162. PMID 32064921 DOI: 10.1177/1535759720904162 Webb WM, Irwin AB, Pepin ME, Henderson BW, Huang V, Butler AA, Herskowitz JH, Wende AR, Cash AE, Lubin FD. 2019. The SETD6 Methyltransferase Plays an Essential Role in Hippocampus-Dependent Memory Formation. Biological Psychiatry. PMID 31378303 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.05.022 Huang V, Butler AA, Lubin FD. 2019. Telencephalon transcriptome analysis of chronically stressed adult zebrafish. Scientific Reports. 9: 1379. PMID 30718621 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-37761-7 Jarome TJ, Perez GA, Hauser RM, Hatch KM, Lubin FD. 2018. EZH2 Methyltransferase Activity Controls Pten Expression and mTOR Signaling During Fear Memory Reconsolidation. The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society For Neuroscience. PMID 30030400 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0538-18.2018 Webb WM, Sanchez RG, Perez G, Butler AA, Hauser RM, Rich MC, O'Bierne AL, Jarome TJ, Lubin FD. 2017. Dynamic association of epigenetic H3K4me3 and DNA 5hmC marks in the dorsal hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex following reactivation of a fear memory. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. PMID 28232238 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2017.02.010 Jarome TJ, Butler AA, Nichols JN, Pacheco NL, Lubin FD. 2015. NF-κB mediates Gadd45β expression and DNA demethylation in the hippocampus during fear memory formation. Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience. 8: 54. PMID 26441517 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2015.00054 Parrish RR, Buckingham SC, Mascia KL, Johnson JJ, Matyjasik MM, Lockhart RM, Lubin FD. 2015. Methionine increases BDNF DNA methylation and improves memory in epilepsy. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. 2: 401–16. PMID 25909085 DOI: 10.1002/acn3.183 Ryley Parrish R, Albertson AJ, Buckingham SC, Hablitz JJ, Mascia KL, Davis Haselden W, Lubin FD. 2013. Status epilepticus triggers early and late alterations in brain-derived neurotrophic factor and NMDA glutamate receptor Grin2b DNA methylation levels in the hippocampus. Neuroscience. 248: 602–19. PMID 23811393 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2013.06.029 Lubin FD, Gupta S, Parrish RR, Grissom NM, Davis RL. 2011. Epigenetic Mechanisms: Critical Contributors to Long-Term Memory Formation. The Neuroscientist : a Review Journal Bringing Neurobiology, Neurology and Psychiatry. PMID 21460188 DOI: 10.1177/1073858410386967 Lubin FD, Roth TL, Sweatt JD. 2008. Epigenetic regulation of BDNF gene transcription in the consolidation of fear memory. The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society For Neuroscience. 28: 10576–86. PMID 18923034 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1786-08.2008 Lubin FD, Sweatt JD. 2007. The IkappaB kinase regulates chromatin structure during reconsolidation of conditioned fear memories. Neuron. 55: 942–57. PMID 17880897 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2007.07.039 Lubin FD, Segal M, McGee DW. 2003. Regulation of epithelial cell cytokine responses by the alpha3beta1 integrin. Immunology. 108: 204–10. PMID 12562329 DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2567.2003.01577.x