American biologist
Robert Allan Weinberg (born November 11, 1942) is a biologist,
Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , director of the
Ludwig Center of the
MIT , and
American Cancer Society Research Professor. His research is in the area of
oncogenes and the genetic basis of human cancer.
[2]
[3]
[4]
Robert Weinberg is also affiliated with the
Broad Institute and is a founding member of the
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
[5] Weinberg and
Eric Lander , a colleague at M.I.T., are co-founders of Verastem, a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat cancer by targeting
cancer stem cells .
[6]
Career
Weinberg earned SB in Biology from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964 and PhD in biology from the same institute in 1969. He was an instructor in biology at
Stillman College in
Tuscaloosa, Alabama (1965–1966), and a postdoc in Ernest Winocour's lab at the
Weizmann Institute of Science (1969–1970) and in
Renato Dulbecco 's lab at the
Salk Institute for Biological Studies (1970–1972). He joined MIT in 1972.
[7]
Research
He is best known for his discoveries of the first human
oncogene
Ras and the first
tumor suppressor gene
Rb
[8] p. 371-381 , which is partially documented in
Natalie Angier ′s book,
Natural Obsessions , about her year spent in Weinberg's lab.
In the late 20th century, advances in genetics led to the discovery of over one hundred cancer cell types. Cancer cells were noted for their bewildering diversity. It was hard to identify the principles that cancers had in common.
He and
Douglas Hanahan wrote the seminal paper "
The Hallmarks of Cancer ", published in January 2000,
[9] that gave the six requirements for one renegade cell to cause a deadly cancer:
[8] In 2011, they published an updated review article entitled "Hallmarks of cancer: the next generation".
[10]
Summary
Capability
Simple analogy
Self-sufficiency in growth signals
"accelerator pedal stuck on"
Insensitivity to anti-growth signals
"brakes don't work"
Evading
apoptosis
won't die when the body normally would kill the defective cell
Limitless replicative potential
infinite generations of descendants
Sustained
angiogenesis
asking the body to give it a blood supply
Tissue invasion and
metastasis
migrating and spreading to other organs and tissues
Weinberg is well known for both his cancer research
[11] and for his mentorship of many eminent scientists, including
Tyler Jacks ,
William C. Hahn ,
Clifford Tabin and
Cornelia Bargmann . He is currently studying cancer cell metastasis.
[12]
He is also the author of the textbook The Biology of Cancer
[1] published by
Garland Science , as well as two important accounts intended for a wider audience: One Renegade Cell: How Cancer Begins (1999) (Science Masters Series); and Racing to the Beginning of the Road: The Search for the Origin of Cancer (1996).
As of 2021
[update] , Weinberg has an
h-index of 209 according to
Google Scholar .
[13]
Awards and honors
In 1985, Weinberg received the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement .
[14] Weinberg won the
National Medal of Science and the
Keio Medical Science Prize in 1997. In 1999, he received the
Albert Einstein World Award of Science in recognition of his valuable and pioneering contributions in the field of Biomedical Sciences and for his productive trajectory related to the genetic and molecular basis of neoplastic disease.
[15] He was elected to the
American Philosophical Society in 2000.
[16] He obtained the
Wolf Prize in Medicine in 2004 (shared with
Roger Y. Tsien ), and he is a member of the
U.S. National Academy of Sciences . In 2007 he received an honorary doctorate degree in commemoration of
Linnaeus from
Uppsala University . He is a member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences since 1992.
[17]
In 2009 he was presented the
Hope Funds Award in Basic Research.
[18] In 2013 he was awarded the $3 million
Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his work
[19] and in 2021 he received the
Japan Prize .
[20]
Retractions
To this day Weinberg has had five research papers retracted where he is listed as a co-author. The retractions include one paper in Cell, one in Cancer Cell, two in Genes & Development and one in Cancer Research.
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
The reasons given for the retraction of one paper (DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2009.03.04) include: "Falsification/Fabrication of Data" and "Manipulation of Results".
See also
References
^
a
b Weinberg, Robert (2007). The Biology of Cancer . Garland Science (published 2006).
ISBN
978-0-8153-4076-8 .
OCLC
63114199 .
^ Shih, C.; Weinberg, R. A. (1982). "Isolation of a transforming sequence from a human bladder carcinoma cell line". Cell . 29 (1): 161–9.
doi :
10.1016/0092-8674(82)90100-3 .
PMID
6286138 .
S2CID
12046552 .
^ Weinberg, R. A.; Hahn, W. C.; Counter, C. M.; Lundberg, A. S.; Beijersbergen, R. L.; Brooks, M. W. (1999). "Creation of human tumour cells with defined genetic elements". Nature . 400 (6743): 464–8.
Bibcode :
1999Natur.400..464H .
doi :
10.1038/22780 .
PMID
10440377 .
S2CID
2377425 .
^ Mani, S. A.; Guo, W.; Liao, M. J.; Eaton, E. N.; Ayyanan, A.; Zhou, A. Y.; Brooks, M.; Reinhard, F.; Zhang, C. C.; Shipitsin, M.; Campbell, L. L.; Polyak, K.; Brisken, C.; Yang, J.; Weinberg, R. A. (2008).
"The Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Generates Cells with Properties of Stem Cells" . Cell . 133 (4): 704–15.
doi :
10.1016/j.cell.2008.03.027 .
PMC
2728032 .
PMID
18485877 .
^
"The Deadly Side of Cancer: How Cancer Spreads with Robert Weinberg – DF/HCC" . www.dfhcc.harvard.edu .
^
"News Release - Novel Drugs Targeting Cancer Stem Cells" . phx.corporate-ir.net . Archived from
the original on January 7, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2022 .
^
"CV (Robert A. Weinberg)" (PDF) . Paris Sciences et Lettres University. Retrieved September 15, 2020 .
^
a
b Siddhartha Mukherjee (2010).
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer . Simon & Schuster.
ISBN
978-1-4391-0795-9 .
OCLC
464593321 .
^ Hanahan, Douglas; Weinberg, RA (January 7, 2000).
"The Hallmarks of Cancer" . Cell . 100 (1): 57–70.
doi :
10.1016/S0092-8674(00)81683-9 .
ISSN
0092-8674 .
PMID
10647931 .
S2CID
1478778 .
^ Hanahan, D.; Weinberg, R. A. (2011).
"Hallmarks of Cancer: The Next Generation" . Cell . 144 (5): 646–674.
doi :
10.1016/j.cell.2011.02.013 .
PMID
21376230 .
^
Tabin, C. J. ; Bradley, S. M.; Bargmann, C. I.; Weinberg, R. A.; Papageorge, A. G.; Scolnick, E. M.; Dhar, R.; Lowy, D. R.; Chang, E. H. (1982). "Mechanism of activation of a human oncogene". Nature . 300 (5888): 143–9.
Bibcode :
1982Natur.300..143T .
doi :
10.1038/300143a0 .
PMID
6290897 .
S2CID
4253259 .
^ Christine L. Chaffer; Robert A. Weinberg (March 25, 2011). "A perspective on Cancer Cell Metastasis". Science . 331 (6024): 1559–1564.
Bibcode :
2011Sci...331.1559C .
doi :
10.1126/science.1203543 .
PMID
21436443 .
S2CID
10550070 .
^
Robert Weinberg publications indexed by
Google Scholar
^
"Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement" . www.achievement.org .
American Academy of Achievement .
^
"Albert Einstein World Award of Science 1999" . Archived from
the original on March 4, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2013 .
^
"APS Member History" . search.amphilsoc.org . Retrieved July 15, 2021 .
^
"The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences: Robert Weinberg" . Archived from
the original on April 3, 2019. Retrieved September 27, 2009 .
^
"2009 Honorees" . hope-funds.org . January 2, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2020 .
^
"LAUREATES 2013" . Breakthrough Prize in Lifesciences. Archived from
the original on December 19, 2013. Retrieved December 19, 2013 .
^
"The Japan Prize Foundation" . The Japan Prize Foundation .
^
"Papers from MIT Cancer Biologist's Laboratory Retracted" .
The Boston Globe .
Archived from the original on July 29, 2015.
^
"Three Retractions for Highly Cited Author" .
Archived from the original on May 23, 2015.
^
"Cancer Research retraction is fifth for Robert Weinberg, fourth for his former student" . July 6, 2015.
Archived from the original on September 10, 2015.
^ Weinberg, Robert A.; Richardson, Andrea L.; Brock, Jane E.; Wang, Zhigang C.; Szász, Attila M.; Calogrias, Diana; Benaich, Nathan; Reinhardt, Ferenc; Valastyan, Scott (June 12, 2009).
"Retraction of Cell paper by Robert Weinberg" . Cell . 137 (6): 1032–1046.
doi :
10.1016/j.cell.2009.03.047 .
PMC
2766609 .
PMID
19524507 .
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