Robin Weiss

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Robert Anthony "Robin" Weiss (born 20 February 1940 [1] ) is a British molecular biologist, [2] Professor of Viral Oncology at University College London [3] and a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. [4]

Contents

Research

His research has focussed on retroviruses, initially as a means of understanding T-cell leukemia 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. [5] Later his work moved on to HIV, also a retrovirus, and made several new important discoveries, most notably identifying CD4 on lymphocytes as the binding receptor for HIV. [5]

Career

Before becoming professor at UCL, Weiss was Director at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, from 1980 until 1989, after which he continued as Director of Research for a further nine years. [6]

Until 2005, Weiss was Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Cancer . His successor, A. L. Harris, states that Weiss showed "clear vision in developing the British Journal of Cancer into [a] multidisciplinary journal with a focus on research that aims to deliver benefits to cancer patients." [7]

Awards and recognition

In 1977, Weiss was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. [8] He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1997, and in 1999 he became an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians. [8]

In November 2001, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences awarded Weiss the M. W. Beijerinck Prize for Virology, noting especially his work on retroviruses. [9] In the same year, he delivered the Leeuwenhoek Lecture. [10]

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" [11]

Weiss was elected as Honorary Member of the Microbiology Society in 2009. [12] He is a member of the European Academy of Microbiology (EAM). [13] He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018. [14]

Related Research Articles

Retrovirus Family of viruses

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 enzyme to produce DNA from its RNA genome, the reverse of the usual pattern, thus retro (backwards). The new DNA is then incorporated into the host cell genome by an integrase enzyme, at which point the retroviral DNA is referred to as a provirus. The host cell then treats the viral DNA as part of its own genome, transcribing and translating the viral genes along with the cell's own genes, producing the proteins required to assemble new copies of the virus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martinus Beijerinck</span> Dutch microbiologist

Martinus Willem Beijerinck was a Dutch microbiologist and botanist who was one of the founders of virology and environmental microbiology. He is credited with the discovery of viruses, which he called "contagium vivum fluidum".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Endogenous retrovirus</span> Inherited retrovirus encoded in an organisms genome

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are endogenous viral elements in the genome that closely resemble and can be derived from retroviruses. They are abundant in the genomes of jawed vertebrates, and they comprise up to 5–8% of the human genome.

<i>Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus</i> Species of virus

Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV) is a betaretrovirus which is the causative agent of a contagious lung cancer in sheep, called ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

The murine leukemia viruses are retroviruses named for their ability to cause cancer in murine (mouse) hosts. Some MLVs may infect other vertebrates. MLVs include both exogenous and endogenous viruses. Replicating MLVs have a positive sense, single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) genome that replicates through a DNA intermediate via the process of reverse transcription.

Michael Stoker

Sir Michael George Parke Stoker CBE FRS FRSE MD FRCP was a British physician and medical researcher in virology.

Max Essex American virologist (born 1939)

Myron Elmer "Max" Essex is the Mary Woodard Lasker Professor of Health Sciences, Emeritus in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard University, Chair of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health AIDS Initiative (HAI) in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, and Chair of the Botswana–Harvard AIDS Institute in Gaborone, Botswana. Essex was one of the first to link animal and human retroviruses to immunosuppressive disease, to suspect that a retrovirus was the cause of AIDS, and to determine that HIV could be transmitted through blood and blood products to hemophiliacs and recipients of blood transfusions. With collaborators, Essex also provided the first evidence that HIV could be transmitted by heterosexual intercourse.

Syncytin-1

Syncytin-1 also known as enverin is a protein found in humans and other primates that is encoded by the ERVW-1 gene. Syncytin-1 is a cell-cell fusion protein whose function is best characterized in placental development. The placenta in turn aids in embryo attachment to the uterus and establishment of a nutrient supply.

Robert Gallo American biomedical researcher

Robert Charles Gallo is an American biomedical researcher. He is best known for his role in establishing the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the infectious agent responsible for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and in the development of the HIV blood test, and he has been a major contributor to subsequent HIV research.

History of virology

The history of virology – the scientific study of viruses and the infections they cause – began in the closing years of the 19th century. Although Louis Pasteur and Edward Jenner developed the first vaccines to protect against viral infections, they did not know that viruses existed. The first evidence of the existence of viruses came from experiments with filters that had pores small enough to retain bacteria. In 1892, Dmitri Ivanovsky used one of these filters to show that sap from a diseased tobacco plant remained infectious to healthy tobacco plants despite having been filtered. Martinus Beijerinck called the filtered, infectious substance a "virus" and this discovery is considered to be the beginning of virology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harald zur Hausen</span> German virologist and professor emeritus (born 1936)

Harald zur Hausen is a German virologist and professor emeritus. He has done research on cervical cancer and discovered the role of papilloma viruses in cervical cancer, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Françoise Barré-Sinoussi</span> French virologist and Nobel laureate (born 1947)

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is a French virologist and Director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Division and Professor at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. Born in Paris, France, Barré-Sinoussi performed some of the fundamental work in the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the cause of AIDS. In 2008, Barré-Sinoussi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, together with her former mentor, Luc Montagnier, for their discovery of HIV. She mandatorily retired from active research on August 31, 2015 and fully retired by some time in 2017.

Angus Dalgleish British oncologist

Angus George Dalgleish FRCP FRCPath FMedSci is a professor of oncology at St George's, University of London, best known for his contributions to HIV/AIDS research. Dalgleish stood in 2015 for Parliament as a UKIP candidate.

John Coffin (scientist) American virologist

John Coffin is an American virologist. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, raised in Schenectady, New York, Coffin is a professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University in Boston. He is also the former director of the HIV Dynamics and Replication Program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and serves as Special Advisor to the Director of the Center for Cancer Research at NCI. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of American Cancer Society professorship. He has advised policy committees at the national level regarding retrovirus-related matters. Coffin was programme committee chair for the 18th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in 2011.

Peter K. Vogt is an American molecular biologist, virologist and geneticist. His research focuses on retroviruses and viral and cellular oncogenes.

Alexander F. Voevodin M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., FRCPath is Russian-born biomedical scientist and educator. He is considered one of the leading early pioneers of HIV/AIDS research.

Jay A. Levy, M.D. is an AIDS and cancer research physician. He is a professor of medicine with specialties in virology and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Éric A. Cohen is a Canadian molecular virologist whose research is focused on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-host interactions that govern viral replication and persistence.

Paul Darren Bieniasz is a British-American virologist whose main area of research is HIV/AIDS. He is currently a professor of retrovirology at the Rockefeller University. He received the 2015 KT Jeang Retrovirology Prize and the 2010 Eli Lilly and Company Research Award. Bieniasz has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 2008.

Norman Peter Leete Wildy was a 20th-century British virologist who was an expert on the herpes simplex virus.

References

  1. ↑ "Birthdays", The Guardian , p. 39, 20 Feb 2014
  2. ↑ Lee, H (2000). The Medical Millennium: 1000 Pioneers Who Have Contributed to the Development of Medicine Over the Last 1000 Years . Informa Health Care. pp.  107. ISBN   978-1-85070-466-9.
  3. ↑ "Division of Infection & Immunity: Robin A. Weiss". University College London. Archived from the original on 2007-08-27.
  4. ↑ "Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Council Members" . Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  5. 1 2 Arlene Judith Klotzko. "Robin Weiss: Relentless retrovirus researcher". The Scientist 2002, 16(21):60.
  6. ↑ "Leaving a legacy to the ICR". The Institute of Cancer Research.
  7. ↑ Harris, A. L. (2005). "Editorial". British Journal of Cancer. 92 (1): 1–2. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6602356. PMC   2361724 .
  8. 1 2 "Biodata: Dr Robin Weiss". National University of Singapore. Archived from the original on 2009-01-20.
  9. ↑ "Beijerinck Prize for Virology awarded to Robin Weiss". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. November 2001. Archived from the original on 2008-09-06.
  10. ↑ "Recent Leeuwenhoek Lectures". The Royal Society. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Blocking the docking of HIV". Imperial College London.
  12. ↑ "Honorary Membership". Microbiology Society.
  13. ↑ "Members of the European Academy of Microbiology (EAM)".
  14. ↑ "Election of New Members at the 2018 Spring Meeting | American Philosophical Society".
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