Mitch Weiss, MD, PhD

Dr. Weiss became Chair of the Hematology Department at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 2014. Before that, Dr. Weiss was the Associate Director for The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Core Facility at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Weiss sees pediatric patients with non-malignant blood disorders in the hospital and studies these diseases in the laboratory. His research interests are to better understand the mechanisms of normal red blood cell development and use this information to treat common blood disorders, including sickle cell disease and betathalassemia. Dr. Weiss was Director of the Pediatric Physician-Scientist Development Program at CHOP and Associate Director of the Combined Degree and Physician Scholar Program at Penn. His career has been dedicated to pediatric hematology research and training the next generation of physician-scientists in the field.

• BS in Biophysics (with highest distinction), The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 1976-1980
• MD, PhD in Medicine and Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 1980-1989
• Intern, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA 1989-1990
• Resident, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA 1990-1992
• Fellow in Pediatric Hematology, Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA

The American Society for Clinical Investigation 2003

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Career Development Award 2006
Society for Pediatric Research 2008
Association of American Physicians 2012
Faculty Mentorship Award, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia 2013

• Lechauve C, Butcher JT, Freiwan A, Biwer L, Keith J, Good ME, Ackerman H, Tillman H, Kiger L, Isakson E and Weiss MJ. Endothelial cell α-globin and its molecular chaperone α-hemoglobin–stabilizing protein regulate arteriolar contractility. J. Clin. Invest. 2018 Aug
• 28. Pii: 99933. Doi:10.1172/JCI99933. PMID: 30295646
• Traxler EA, Yao Y, Wang YD, Woodard KJ, Kurita R, Nakamura Y, Hughes JR, Hardison RC, Blobel GA, Li C, Weiss MJ. A genome-editing strategy to treat β-hemoglobinopathies that recapitulates a mutation associated with a benign genetic condition. Nat Med. 2016 Sep;22(9):987-90. PubMed PMID: 27525524; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5706766.
• Paralkar VR, Taborda CC, Huang P, Yao Y, Kossenkov AV, Prasad R, Luan J, Davies JO, Hughes JR, Hardison RC, Blobel GA, Weiss MJ. Unlinking an lncRNA from Its Associated cis Element. Mol Cell. 2016 Apr 7;62(1):104-10. PubMed PMID: 27041223; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4877494.
• Noh JY, Gandre-Babbe S, Wang Y, Hayes V, Yao Y, Gadue P, Sullivan SK, Chou ST, Machlus KR, Italiano JE Jr, Kyba M, Finkelstein D, Ulirsch JC, Sankaran VG, French DL, Poncz M, Weiss MJ. Inducible Gata1 suppression expands megakaryocyte-erythroid progenitors from embryonic stem cells. J Clin Invest. 2015 Jun;125(6):2369-74. PubMed PMID: 25961454; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4497743.
• Pimkin M, Kossenkov AV, Mishra T, Morrissey CS, Wu W, Keller CA, Blobel GA, Lee D, Beer MA, Hardison RC, Weiss MJ. Divergent functions of hematopoietic transcription factors in lineage priming and differentiation during erythro-megakaryopoiesis. Genome Res. 2014 Dec;24(12):1932-44. PubMed PMID: 25319996; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4248311.
• Gandre-Babbe S, Paluru P, Aribeana C, Chou ST, Bresolin S, Lu L, Sullivan SK, Tasian SK, Weng J, Favre H, Choi JK, French DL, Loh ML, Weiss MJ. Patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells recapitulate hematopoietic abnormalities of juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia. Blood. 2013 Jun 13;121(24):4925-9. PubMed PMID: 23620576; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3682343.
• Kihm AJ, Kong Y, Hong W, Russell JE, Rouda S, Adachi K, Simon MC, Blobel GA, Weiss MJ. An abundant erythroid protein that stabilizes free alpha-haemoglobin. Nature. 2002 Jun 13;417(6890):758-63. PubMed PMID: 12066189.
• Nichols KE, Crispino JD, Poncz M, White JG, Orkin SH, Maris JM, Weiss MJ. Familial dyserythropoietic anaemia and thrombocytopenia due to an inherited mutation in GATA1. Nat Genet. 24(3):266-270, 2000.