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Irving Weissman
Academic Appointments
- Professor, Pathology - Stem Cell Institute
- Member, Bio-X
- Member, Stanford Cancer Institute
- Professor, Developmental Biology
- Professor (By courtesy), Biology (School of Humanities and Sciences)
Key Documents
Contact Information
- Academic Offices
Personal Information Email Tel (650) 723-6520Alternate Contact Linda Quinn Administrative Associate Email Tel Work 650-723-6520
Professional Overview
Administrative Appointments
- Director, Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine (2003 - present)
Honors and Awards
- National Academy of Sciences Council, National Academy of Sciences (2011)
- Honorary Investigator, State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, China (2010)
- Honorary Professor, Peking Union Medical College, China (2010)
- Simon M. Shubitz Award for Excellence in the Field of Cancer Research, University of Chicago (2010)
- The Cockrell Foundation Award in Clinical or Translational Research, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute (2009)
- Honorary Director, Center for Biotech/BioMedicine and Shenzhen Key Lab of Gene & Antibody Therapy, Graduate School of Shenzhen, Tsinghau University, China (2009)
Professional Education
| MD: | Stanford University, Medicine (1965) |
| BS: | Montana State College, Pre-med (1961) |
Postdoctoral Advisees
Paola Betancur, Charles Chan, Mingye Feng, Nathaniel Fernhoff, Ingrid Ibarra, Masanori Miyanishi, Yasuo Mori, Aaron Newman, Yuval Rinkevich, Benyamin Rosental, Katharina Seiler, Rahul Sinha, Anne Volkmer, Fangfang Zhu
Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations
Industry Relationships
Stanford is committed to ethical and transparent interactions with our industrial and other commercial partners. It is our policy to disclose payments (exclusive of travel support) from, and/or equity in, companies or other commercial entities to Stanford faculty of $5,000 or more in total value, as well as any equity in a privately held company, when the faculty member also has institutional responsibilities related to his or her interactions with the company. View Full Information
Scientific Focus
Current Research Interests
Dr. Weissman directs a research group consisting of graduate students, medical student-scientists, and postdoctoral fellows, all of whom study stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. He has trained and supervised hundreds of students and fellows, authored more than 750 scientific articles and has numerous awards and honorary degrees for his research accomplishments. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Amerian Philosophical Society, and many other societies. He is past president of the American Association of Immunologists [1994] and the International Society of Stem Cell Research [2009]. Dr. Weissman is an expert in the field of hematopoiesis, leukemia, and hematopoietic stem cells [HSC], and most recently, the clonal events leading from HSC to leukemia stem cells.. His research also encompasses the phylogeny and developmental biology of the cells that make up the blood-forming and immune systems. He has a laboratory at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, where he studies the histocompatibility systems in colonial protochordate, a system which he proposed evolved to prevent predatory germline stem cell lineages from passing from one individual to another in multi-individual colonies that share a common extracorporeal blood vascular system; only histocompatible stem cells can colonize allogeneic natural parabionts. His laboratory was first to identify and isolate the blood-forming stem cell [HSC] from mice, and has defined, by lineage analysis, the stages of development between the stem cells and mature progeny. His laboratories have also discovered the human HSC, a human brain-forming stem cell population, mouse skeletal muscle stem cells, and an osteochondral stem cell in mice. He has worked in the area of cancer since 1977, and is a leader in the field of cancer stem cell biology. In recent years his work has included studying the potential of CD47 as a cancer therapeutic and identifying cancer stem cells from a variety of blood and solid cancers. He and his colleagues have found that CD47, a dont eat me signal is highly expressed beginning in the latter stages of progression of cancer stem cells from the benign to the highly malignant state, and this counteracts eat me signals on preneoplastic and highly malignant cancer cells, presumably as part of the evolution of cancer clones driven by self-renewing subsets of cells in the cancer. This research brings into focus the primary role of phagocytic cells such as macrophages of the innate immune system, in tumor surveillance. Dr. Weissman was a founder of three companies, SyStemix, Cellerant, and Stem Cells, Inc., all focused on bringing stem cell therapies into the clinic, and earlier was on the founding SABs of Amgen, DNAX, and T Cell Sciences.
Publications
- Anti-KIT monoclonal antibody inhibits imatinib-resistant gastrointestinal stromal tumor growth. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013; (9): 3501-6
- Hematopoietic stem cell and progenitor cell mechanisms in myelodysplastic syndromes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013; (8): 3011-6
- Repeated, long-term cycling of putative stem cells between niches in a basal chordate. Dev Cell. 2013; (1): 76-88
- Synthesis of a photocaged tamoxifen for light-dependent activation of Cre-ER recombinase-driven gene modification. Chem Commun (Camb). 2013; (43): 4971-3
- Anti-CD47 antibodies promote phagocytosis and inhibit the growth of human myeloma cells. Leukemia. 2012; (12): 2538-45
- Antibody therapy targeting the CD47 protein is effective in a model of aggressive metastatic leiomyosarcoma. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012; (17): 6656-61
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