Irving Weissman

Administrative Appointments

• Director, Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine (2003 - present)

Honors and Awards

• The Linus Pauling Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Science, Stanford University (2005)
• Rabbi Shai Shacknai Memorial Prize in Immunology and Cancer Research, The Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology (2004)
• Medal for Distinguished Contributions to Biomedical Research, New York Academy of Medicine (2004)
• Alan Cranston Awardee, Alliance for Aging Research (2004)
• Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal, National Academy of Sciences Council (2004)

Professional Education

• MD, Stanford University, Medicine (1965)
• BS, Montana State College, Pre-med (1961)

Postdoctoral Advisees

Reza Ardehali, Alexander Boiko, Keith Chan, Micha Drukker, Lauren Ehrlich, Matthew Inlay, Dongkyoon Kim, Rong Lu, Yuval Rinkevich, Jun Seita, Stephen Willingham

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Cancer Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Immunology

Research Interests

Irving L. Weissman's research encompasses the phylogeny and developmental biology of the cells that make up the blood-forming and immune systems. His laboratory identified and isolated the blood-forming stem cell from mice, and has defined, by lineage analysis, the stages of development between the stem cells and mature progeny (granulocytes, macrophages, etc.). This required developing and cloning stromal cells of the hematolymphoid microenvironments—from the bone marrow for myeloid and B cells, and from the thymus for T cells. While the adhesion molecules and factors from these stromal cells proved important as molecules (and the genes that encode them) for myeloid and B cells, the analysis of T cell development required in vivo studies of thymic development. In addition, the Weissman laboratory has pioneered the study of the genes and proteins involved in cell adhesion events required for lymphocyte homing to lymphoid organs in vivo, either as a normal function or as events involved in malignant leukemic metastases.

The Weissman laboratory also has a small group at Hopkins Marine Station, where they have developed a model organism for laboratory and field study of allorecognition—the invertebrate counterpart of transplantation immunity. Working with the protochordate Botryllus schlosseri (which has a chordate larval stage and an invertebrate adult form) they have identified a single major gene locus that governs rapid allorecognition, and 2-3 other loci involved in delayed allorecognition events. They are using this model to study the genes, proteins, and cells that govern protochordate allorecognition, and the effects of these genes on their population dynamics in the field.

Publications

• Cancer stem cell-directed therapies: recent data from the laboratory and clinic. Park CY, Tseng D, Weissman IL "Mol Ther" 2009 ; 2 (17) : 219-30
• The adhesion molecule esam1 is a novel hematopoietic stem cell marker. Ooi AG, Karsunky H, Majeti R, Butz S, Vestweber D, Ishida T, Quertermous T, Weissman IL, Forsberg EC "Stem Cells" 2009 ; 3 (27) : 653-61
• Endochondral ossification is required for haematopoietic stem-cell niche formation. Chan CK, Chen CC, Luppen CA, Kim JB, DeBoer AT, Wei K, Helms JA, Kuo CJ, Kraft DL, Weissman IL "Nature" 2009 ; 7228 (457) : 490-4
• Imaging of STAT3 signaling pathway during mouse embryonic stem cell differentiation. Xie X, Chan KS, Cao F, Huang M, Li Z, Lee A, Weissman IL, Wu JC "Stem Cells Dev" 2009 ; 2 (18) : 205-14
• The PIAS-like protein Zimp10 is essential for embryonic viability and proper vascular development. Beliakoff J, Lee J, Ueno H, Aiyer A, Weissman IL, Barsh GS, Cardiff RD, Sun Z "Mol Cell Biol" 2008 ; 1 (28) : 282-92