Irving Weissman to Present

Thomas Lecture at Keystone

Irving Weissman, MD, director of the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford School of Medicine, will present the E. Donnall Thomas Lecture at the BMT Tandem Meetings in Keystone.  His presentation, “Normal and Neoplastic Stem Cells,” will be on Saturday, Feb. 10.

Dr. Weissman is professor of pathology and developmental biology at Stanford School of Medicine.  His research encompasses the phylogeny and developmental biology of hematopoietic cells.  His laboratory identified and isolated the blood-forming stem cell from mice, and has defined by lineage analysis the stages of development between the stem cells and mature progeny such as granulocytes and macrophages.  This required developing and cloning stromal cells of the hematolymphoid microenvironments – from the bone marrow for myeloid and B-cells, and from the thymus for T-cells.

Although the adhesion molecules and factors from these stromal cells proved important as molecules (and the genes that encode them) for myeloid and B-cells, the analysis of T-cell development required in vivo studies of thymic development.  In addition, the Weissman laboratory has pioneered the study of the genes and proteins involved in cell adhesion events required for lymphocyte homing to lymphoid organs in vivo, either as a normal function or as events involved in malignant leukemic metastases.

The Weissman laboratory also has developed a model organism for laboratory and field study of allorecognition – the invertebrate counterpart of transplantation immunity.  Working with the protochordate Botryllus schlosseri, which has a chordate larval stage and an invertebrate adult form, a single major gene locus has been identified that governs rapid allorecognition, and 2-3 other loci involved in delayed allorecognition events.  This model is being used to study the genes, proteins and cells that govern protochordate allorecognition, and the effects of these genes on their population dynamics in the field.

Dr. Weissman is recipient of the Linus Pauling Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Science from Stanford School of Medicine, and the Medal for Distinguished Contributions to Biomedical Research from the New York Academy of Science.  He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and has been a member of ASBMT since just after its founding in 1995.