Description of Research Expertise

Dr. Weissman's laboratory focuses on the study of RNA and innate immune system biology and the application of these findings to vaccine research and gene therapy. There are three main projects in his laboratory. The first project began through the use of mRNA encoding antigen as a delivery system to load dendritic cells to promote broad immune responses as part of a vaccine. This project has expanded to include basic studies of RNA immunogenicity and translation and the development of applications for gene therapy. The second project develops new HIV envelope immunogens that can induce broad responses and cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies. The third project continues previous studies that identified a protein found on DC, macrophages, and epithelial cells that binds HIV envelope with high affinity. The main focus of this project is testing whether this and related molecules function in vivo to promote HIV genital tract infection.

Selected Publications

Hook LM, Awasthi S, Cairns TM, Alameh MG, Fowler BT, Egan KP, Sung MMH, Weissman D, Cohen GH, Friedman HM.: Antibodies to Crucial Epitopes on HSV-2 Glycoprotein D as a Guide to Dosing an mRNA Genital Herpes Vaccine Viruses 14 : 540,2022.

Zhang D, Atochina-Vasserman EN, Lu J, Maurya DS, Xiao Q, Liu M, Adamson J, Ona N, Reagan EK, Ni H, Weissman D, Percec V.: The Unexpected Importance of the Primary Structure of the Hydrophobic Part of One-Component Ionizable Amphiphilic Janus Dendrimers in Targeted mRNA Delivery Activity J Am Chem Soc 144 : 4746-4753,2022.

Mu Z, Wiehe K, Saunders KO, Henderson R, Cain DW, Parks R, Martik D, Mansouri K, Edwards RJ, Newman A, Lu X, Xia SM, Eaton A, Bonsignori M, Montefiori D, Han Q, Venkatayogi S, Evangelous T, Wang Y, Rountree W, Korber B, Wagh K, Tam Y, Barbosa C, Alam SM, Williams WB, Tian M, Alt FW, Pardi N, Weissman D, Haynes BF.: mRNA-encoded HIV-1 Env trimer ferritin nanoparticles induce monoclonal antibodies that neutralize heterologous HIV-1 isolates in mice Cell Rep 38 : 110514,2022.

Litvinova LS, Shupletsova VV, Khaziakhmatova OG, Daminova AG, Kudryavtseva VL, Yurova KA, Malashchenko VV, Todosenko NM, Popova V, Litvinov RI, Korotkova EI, Sukhorukov GB, Gow AJ, Weissman D, Atochina-Vasserman EN, Khlusov IA.: Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells as a Carrier for a Cell-Mediated Drug Delivery Front Bioeng Biotechnol 10 : 796111,2022.

Rurik JG, Tombácz I, Yadegari A, Méndez Fernández PO, Shewale SV, Li L, Kimura T, Soliman OY, Papp TE, Tam YK, Mui BL, Albelda SM, Puré E, June CH, Aghajanian H, Weissman D, Parhiz H, Epstein JA.: CAR T cells produced in vivo to treat cardiac injury Science 375 : 91-96,2022.

Li D, Martinez DR, Schäfer A, Chen H, Barr M, Sutherland LL, Lee E, Parks R, Mielke D, Edwards W, Newman A, Bock KW, Minai M, Nagata BM, Gagne M, Douek DC, DeMarco CT, Denny TN, Oguin TH, Rountree W, Wang Y, Mansouri K, Edwards RJ, Ferrari G, Sempowski GD, Eaton A, Tang J, Cain DW, Santra S, Pardi N, Weissman D, Tomai MA, Fox CB, Moore IN, Haynes BF: Breadth of SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization and Protection Induced by a Nanoparticle Vaccine. bioRxiv epub : 1,2022.

Li D, Martinez DR, Schäfer A, Chen H, Barr M, Sutherland LL, Lee E, Parks R, Mielke D, Edwards W, Newman A, Bock KW, Minai M, Nagata BM, Gagne M, Douek DC, DeMarco CT, Denny TN, Oguin TH, Rountree W, Wang Y, Mansouri K, Edwards RJ, Ferrari G, Sempowski GD, Eaton A, Tang J, Cain DW, Santra S, Pardi N, Weissman D, Tomai MA, Fox CB, Moore IN, Andersen H, Lewis MG, Golding H, Khurana S, Seder R, Baric RS, Montefiori DC, Saunders KO, Haynes BF.: Breadth of SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization and Protection Induced by a Nanoparticle Vaccine bioRxiv : 2022.

Zhang H, Han X, Alameh MG, Shepherd SJ, Padilla MS, Xue L, Butowska K, Weissman D, Mitchell MJ.: Rational design of anti-inflammatory lipid nanoparticles for mRNA delivery J Biomed Mater Res A : 2022.

Zhang H, Han X, Alameh MG, Shepherd SJ, Padilla MS, Xue L, Butowska K, Weissman D, Mitchell MJ.: Rational design of anti-inflammatory lipid nanoparticles for mRNA delivery Biomed Mater Res A 10 : epub,2022.

Han X, Zhang H, Butowska K, Swingle KL, Alameh MG, Weissman D, Mitchell MJ.: An ionizable lipid toolbox for RNA delivery Nat Commun 12 : 7233,2021.

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Academic Contact Information

410B Hill Pavilion
380 S University Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 215-573-8491