University of Virginia Health System

WEBER TO LEAD U.VA. CANCER CENTER

Weber's appointment, which took effect June 15, was announced by Dr. Robert M. Carey, dean of the School of Medicine.

We are very pleased that Michael Weber has agreed to lead the University of Virginia Cancer Center. He is one of the nation's most outstanding cancer researchers. Our shared goal is to take the Cancer Center to the top five in the United States, and he is just the person to get us there, Carey said.

Weber has been a professor at the University of Virginia since 1983. As the associate director for development since 1987 and associate director for laboratory research since 1990, Weber has already had a significant role at the Cancer Center.

This is an historic moment in cancer research. The knowledge about cancer cells and genes gained over the past 10 years, combined with the near-completion of the human genome project, means that for the first time there is realistic hope that cancer can be defeated, Weber said. I believe the University of Virginia Cancer Center can play a major role in accelerating the discovery of new knowledge and the translation of that knowledge into treatments, diagnostics and preventives that will improve the lives of people in Virginia and throughout the nation.

Weber's research centers on understanding how the process called signal transduction controls cancer cell growth and development. His lab has a focus in prostate cancer and currently has four grants from the National Institutes of Health and one from CaPCURE to support this work. Weber is also founder of the Molecular Medicine Graduate Program and co-organizer of the Oncogenes and Mitogene symposium held at U.Va. each fall.

Weber is a reviewer for numerous scientific publications and has been the editor of the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology. He chairs the Scientific Advisory Board for Argonex, a Charlottesville-based, biotechnology company and serves on the New York-based Upstate Biotechnology's Scientific Advisory Board.

Weber earned a B.Sc. from Haverford College and a Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of California at San Diego. He completed postdoctoral work in tumor virology at the University of California Berkley, was a Dernham Postdoctoral Fellow of the American Cancer Society and received a MERIT award from the National Cancer Institute.

June 29, 2000