Stephen J. Weiss, MD
E. Gifford and Love Barnett Upjohn Professor of Internal Medicine and Oncology; Chief, Molecular Medicine & Genetics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2009-2010 BCRF Project:
Dr. Weiss and his team continue to define and characterize a set of breast cancer-associated genes that confer tumor cells with the ability to invade local tissues, stimulate new blood vessel formation (i.e., angiogenesis) and metastasize. Current work suggests that a small set of gene products (i.e., Snail1, MT1-MMP and MT2-MMP) play dominant roles in regulating breast cancer cell behavior. Insights gleaned from these analyses are being used to develop novel therapeutics designed to interfere with breast cancer cell growth and metastatic behavior.
Bio:
After completing his BA, MD and internship at Ohio State University and Washington University, Dr. Weiss was recruited to the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Michigan in 1978. Most recently, Dr. Weiss served as the Director of the Molecular Mechanisms of Disease Program at the University of Michigan before joining the Life Sciences Institute as a Research Professor in 2006.
Dr. Weiss' research efforts have long focused on the mechanisms used by cancer cells to remodel tissue structure during events ranging from inflammatory disease and angiogenesis to cancer. His highly cited works on the role of metalloproteinases in regulating these pathologic events have appeared consistently in top-ranked journals such as Science, Nature, Genes & Development, the Journal of Cell Biology, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Cell.
Dr. Weiss has received numerous honors and awards in the course of his academic career, including the National Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Clinical Research and a MERIT Award from the NIH. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and in 2001 was selected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Weiss has also served on numerous committees at the National Institutes of Health as well as the National Cancer Institute, and served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Investigation from 1997 to 2002.
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