Robert Anthony "Robin" Weiss (born 20 February 1940) is a British

molecular biologist Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

, Professor of Viral Oncology at University College London and a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

Research

His research has focussed on

retrovirus A retrovirus is a type of virus that inserts a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. Once inside the host cell's cytoplasm, the virus uses its own reverse transcriptase ...

es, initially as a means of understanding

T-cell leukemia T-cell leukemia describes several different types of lymphoid leukemia which affect T cells. Types include: * Large granular lymphocytic leukemia * Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma * T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia In practice, it can be hard to di ...

and other cancers, which may be caused by retroviruses. A break-through discovery in 1971 was that the retroviral genome in chickens follows the rules of Mendelian inheritance.Arlene Judith Klotzko.
Robin Weiss: Relentless retrovirus researcher
. '' The Scientist'' 2002, 16(21):60. Later his work moved on to HIV, also a retrovirus, and made several new important discoveries, most notably identifying

CD4 In molecular biology, CD4 (cluster of differentiation 4) is a glycoprotein that serves as a co-receptor for the T-cell receptor (TCR). CD4 is found on the surface of immune cells such as T helper cells, monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic ...

on lymphocytes as the binding receptor for HIV.

Career

Before becoming professor at UCL, Weiss was director at The

Institute of Cancer Research The Institute of Cancer Research (the ICR) is a public research institute and a member institution of the University of London in London, United Kingdom, specialising in oncology. It was founded in 1909 as a research department of the Royal Mar ...

, London, from 1980 until 1989, after which he continued as director of research for a further nine years. Until 2005, Weiss was editor-in-chief of the ''

British Journal of Cancer The ''British Journal of Cancer'' is a twice-monthly professional medical journal owned by Cancer Research UK (a registered charity in the United Kingdom), published on their behalf by Springer Nature's Nature Research. The ''British Journal of ...

''. His successor, A. L. Harris, states that Weiss showed "clear vision in developing the ''British Journal of Cancer'' into multidisciplinary journal with a focus on research that aims to deliver benefits to cancer patients."

Awards and recognition

In 1977, Weiss was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1997, and in 1999 he became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. In November 2001, the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

awarded Weiss the M. W. Beijerinck Prize for Virology, noting especially his work on retroviruses. In the same year, he delivered the

Leeuwenhoek Lecture The Leeuwenhoek Lecture is a prize lecture of the Royal Society to recognize achievement in microbiology. The prize was originally given in 1950 and awarded annually, but from 2006 to 2018 was given triennially. From 2018 it will be awarded bienni ...

. In 2007, Imperial College London awarded Weiss the Ernst Chain Prize, noting that he "has pioneered our understanding of HIV and AIDS, particularly on the identification of CD4 as the HIV receptor and on the analysis of neutralizing antibodies to the virus" Weiss was elected as Honorary Member of the Microbiology Society in 2009. He is a member of the European Academy of Microbiology (EAM). He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Robin Living people 1940 births British molecular biologists British virologists Fellows of the Royal Society Academics of University College London Academics of the Institute of Cancer Research Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Members of the American Philosophical Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences