Dr. Samara Rubinstein

Samara Rubinstein is a Biological Anthropologist working at the interface of science and society with a wide range of experience in both scientific research and public engagement in museums. She did postdoctoral research in New York University‘s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, where she managed a large plant genome research project investigating the evolutionary genomics of domesticated crops. Samara Rubinstein’s museum experience includes her work as Senior Manager in the Department of Education at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where she developed slates of scientific public programs focused on the exhibitions and managed an educational lab facility. Prior to that, she worked as Curatorial Assistant for the Museum for African Art in New York City.
Samara Rubinstein joined BIOTOPIA in 2017 as Content Curator for the main exhibition as well as the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich in the Chair of Life Sciences and Society.

Selected Publications

• 2018 Badano I, Sanabria DJ, Totaro ME, Rubinstein S, Gili JA, Liotta DJ, Picconi MA, Campos RH, Schurr TG. Mitochondrial DNA ancestry, HPV infection and the risk of cervical cancer in a multiethnic population of northeastern Argentina. PLoS ONE 13(1): e0190966.

• 2012 Dulik MC, Zhadanov SI, Osipova LP, Askapuli A, Gau L, Gokcumen O, Rubinstein S, Schurr TG. Mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome variation provides evidence for a recent common ancestry between Native Americans and Indigenous Altaians. American Journal of Human Genetics 90:1–18.

• 2012 Jonathan M. Flowers, Jeanmaire Molina, Samara Rubinstein, Pu Huang,2 Barbara A. Schaal and Michael D. Purugganan. Natural Selection in Gene-Dense Regions Shapes the Genomic Pattern of Polymorphism in Wild and Domesticated Rice. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 29(2): 675–687

• 2012 Pu Huang, Jeanmaire Molina, Jonathan M. Flowers, Samara Rubinstein, Scott A. Jackson, Michael D. Purugganan, Barbara A. Schaal Phylogeography of Asian Wild Rice, Oryza rufipogon: A Genome-Wide View. Molecular Ecology. 21, 4593–4604

• 2011 Jeanmaire Molina, Martin Sikora, Nandita Garud, Jonathan M. Flowers, Samara Rubinstein, Andy Reynolds, Michael Purugganan. Molecular Evidence for a Single Evolutionary Origin of Domesticated Rice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 10.1073

• 2011 Jeanmaire Molina, Martin Sikora, Nandita Garud, Jonathan M. Flowers, Samara Rubinstein, Andy Reynolds, Pu Huang, Scott A. Jackson, Barbara A. Schaal, Carlos D. Bustamante, Adam R. Boyko, and Michael D. Purugganan. Reply to Ge and Sang: A single origin of domesticated rice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (39) E756

• 2010 Kristie A. Mather, Jeanmaire Molina, Jonathan M. Flowers, Samara Rubinstein, Brad l. Rauh, Amy Lawton-Rauh, Ana l. Caicedo, Kenneth l. Mcnally and Michael D. Purugganan. Migration, Isolation and Hybridization in Island Crop Populations: The Case of Madagascar Rice. Molecular Ecology. 19, 4892–4905

• 2008 Samara Rubinstein, Matthew C. Dulik, Omer Gokcumen, Sergey Zhadanov, Ludmila Osipova, Maggie Cocca, Nishi Mehta, Marina Gubina, Olga Posukh, Theodore G. Schurr. Russian Old Believers: Genetic Consequences of Their Persecution and Exile, as Shown by Mitochondrial DNA Evidence. Human Biology, 80(3), 203-237

• 2008 Gokcumen, Omer, Dulik M, Pai A, Zhadanov S, Rubinstein S, Osipova L, Andreenkov O, Tabikhanova L, Gubina M, Labuda D, Schurr TG. Genetic Variation in the Enigmatic Altaian Kazakhs of South-Central Russia: Insights into Turkic Population History. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 136:278-293.