Robert Weinberg

This article is about the biologist. For the author, editor and comic book writer, see Robert Weinberg (author).

Robert Allan Weinberg
Born	(1942-11-11) November 11, 1942
Nationality	American
Fields	Genetics
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Whitehead Institute

Robert Allan Weinberg (born November 11, 1942) is a Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at MIT and American Cancer Society Research Professor; his research is in the area of oncogenes and the genetic basis of human cancer. Weinberg is also affiliated with the Broad Institute and is a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He co-teaches MIT course 7.012 (introductory biology) with Eric Lander.

Research

He is best known for his discoveries of the first human oncogene Ras and the first tumor supressor gene Rb^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 lead to the discovery of over 100 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, that gave the 6 requirements for one renegade cell to cause a deadly cancer:^p.390-391

Summary

Capability	Simple Explanation/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

He is well known for both his brilliance in cancer research and for his mentorship of many eminent scientists, including Tyler Jacks. He is currently studying cancer cell metastasis.

He is also the author of the textbook The Biology of Cancer published by Garland Science.

Awards

He won the National Medal of Science and the Keio Medical Science Prize in 1997, 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. In 2009 he was presented the Hope Funds Award in Basic Research. In 2013 he was awarded the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his work.

See also

• Phillip Allen Sharp

Further reading

• Tabin, C.J., Bradley, S.M., Bargmann, C.I., Weinberg, R.A., Papageorge, A.G., Scolnick, E.M., Dhar, R., Lowy, D.R., and Chang, E.H. (1982). "Mechanism of activation of a human oncogene". Nature 300 (5888): 143–149. doi:10.1038/300143a0. PMID 6290897. 

• Shih, C. and Weinberg, R.A. (1982). "Isolation of a transforming sequence from a human bladder carcinoma cell line". Cell 29 (1): 161–169. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(82)90100-3. PMID 6286138. 

• Hahn, W.C., Counter, C.M., Lundberg, A.S., Beijersbergen, R.L., Brooks, M.W., and Weinberg, R.A. (1999). "Creation of human tumor cells with defined genetic elements". Nature 400 (6743): 464–468. doi:10.1038/22780. PMID 10440377. 

• Mani SA, Guo W, Liao MJ, Eaton EN, Ayyanan A, Zhou AY, Brooks M, Reinhard F, Zhang CC, Shipitsin M, Campbell LL, Polyak K, Brisken C, Yang J, Weinberg RA. (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. 

• Weinberg, Robert (2007). The Biology of Cancer. Garland Science. ISBN 0-8153-4076-1; ISBN 0-8153-4078-8 . OCLC 63114199. 

External links

• Weinberg's page at the Whitehead Institute
• Weinberg's page at MIT
• Weinberg Lab
• Bob Weinberg Playlist Appearance on WMBR's Dinnertime Sampler radio show March 17, 2004
• Weinberg interviewed in American Scientist