September 7, 2021
Robin Weiss to present Anatomy and Physiology Seminar
Robin A. Weiss, emeritus professor of viral oncology at University College London, will present "How llamas helped HIV research" at the first Anatomy and Physiology Seminar of the fall semester at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 7, via Zoom.
A zoology graduate of University College London, Weiss spent most of his career conducting research on oncogenic viruses and on HIV. He is noted for his contributions to the discovery of endogenous retroviral genomes and for identifying CD4 as the HIV receptor. His pseudotype techniques originally devised for retroviruses have been applied to antibody neutralization of other enveloped viruses such as rabies, Ebola and SARS-CoV-1 and 2. He has exploited single-chain llama nanobodies to explore HIV vaccines, microbicides and diagnostics.
Weiss was director of the Institute of Cancer Research, London from 1980–1998 and was president of the Microbiology Society from 2006–2009. He has chaired the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and served on the board of the Africa Health Research Institute. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and a foreign member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.