Irving Lerner "Irv" Weissman (born
Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls is the third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 census. The city covers an area of and is the principal city of the Great Falls, M ...
, October 21, 1939) is a Professor of Pathology and Developmental Biology at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
where he is the Director of the Stanford Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine along with Michael Longaker.
Weissman was raised in Great Falls, Montana and started his scientific career at the
McLaughlin Research Institute there. He obtained his MD from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in 1965 after earning a BS from
Montana State University
Montana State University (MSU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 6 ...
in 1961. His research has since focused on
hematopoietic stem cell
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are the stem cells that give rise to other blood cells. This process is called haematopoiesis. In vertebrates, the very first definitive HSCs arise from the ventral endothelial wall of the embryonic aorta within t ...
biology.
Early life
Weissman was not an exceptionally good student in high school.
He started assisting with medical research in 1956, when he got a summer job at
Montana Deaconess Hospital. He preferred the idea of caring for
laboratory mice
The laboratory mouse or lab mouse is a small mammal of the order Rodentia which is bred and used for scientific research or feeders for certain pets. Laboratory mice are usually of the species ''Mus musculus''. They are the most commonly used ...
and assisting in the lab to washing cars or similar jobs that were available to teenaged boys in the area. He was inspired by the idea that he could think scientifically and respond to a questioning,
Socratic method
The Socratic method (also known as method of Elenchus, elenctic method, or Socratic debate) is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw ...
, rather than didactic lectures about scientific facts. He ran his first experiment there during his senior year in high school, to see whether he could repeat an experiment that had recently been published. He attributes his admission to college and medical school to the resulting publications, rather than to his less-than-perfect grades.
Awards
His awards include election to the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
in 1989, named California Scientist of the Year in 2002, and elected to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 2008.
*2008
Robert Koch Prize
The Robert Koch Medal and Award are two prizes awarded annually by the German for excellence in the biomedical sciences. These awards grew out of early attempts by German physician Robert Koch to generate funding to support his research into the ...
*2009
Rosenstiel Award
The Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research is awarded by Brandeis University. It was established in 1971 "as an expression of the conviction that educational institutions have an important role to play in the en ...
br>
*2013
Max Delbrück Medal
The Max Delbrück Medal has been awarded annually from 1992 to 2013 by the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (German: ''Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin'' or MDC). Named after the German biophysicist Max Delbrück, it is pre ...
*2015 Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Prize
*2019
Albany Medical Center Prize
The Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research is the United States' second highest value prize in medicine and biomedical research, awarded by the Albany Medical Center. Among prizes for medicine worldwide, the Albany Medical ...
* 2022
Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology
Research focus
He developed methods to identify stem cells, and has extensively researched stem cells and progenitor cells. His research focus is "the phylogeny and developmental biology of the cells that make up the blood-forming and immune system."
[ Weissman is widely recognized as the "father of ]hematopoiesis
Haematopoiesis (, from Greek , 'blood' and 'to make'; also hematopoiesis in American English; sometimes also h(a)emopoiesis) is the formation of blood cellular components. All cellular blood components are derived from haematopoietic stem cells. ...
" since he was the first to purify blood forming stem cells in both mice and humans. His laboratory purified stem cells from other mature cells, such as B cells, by observing the different lineage markers expressed by each immune cell type. So when the immune cells of mice reacted with fluorescently labeled antibodies specific to effector cells, the mature cells were differentiated from the newly forming stem cells. His work has contributed to the understanding of how a single hematopoietic stem cell can give rise to specialized blood cells.
Weissman is also a leading expert in the field of cancer stem cell biology, where his work sheds light on the understanding of the pathogenesis of multiple human malignancies. He is also known for transgenic research in which human brain cells are grown in the brains of mice.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weissman, Irving
Montana State University alumni
Stanford University School of Medicine alumni
Living people
American diabetologists
1939 births
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Stanford University School of Medicine faculty
21st-century American biologists
People from Great Falls, Montana
Fellows of the AACR Academy
Members of the National Academy of Medicine