Dr. Robert A. Weinberg is a Founding Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Weinberg lab is known for its discoveries of the first human oncogene – the ras oncogene that causes normal cells to form tumors, and the isolation of the first known tumor suppressor gene - the Rb gene. His research is concentrated in three areas: (1) Understanding the collaborative impact of paracrine and systemic signaling on tumor growth and progression. (2) Identification of mechanisms through which paracrine and systemic signals can induce epithelial cells to enter into a mesenchymal/stem-cell state. (3) Ellucidating the complex molecular mechanisms that regulate carcinoma invasion and metastasis.
