George Weiner, MD
Introduction
Dr. Weiner's research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of action of anti-cancer monoclonal antibodies, and on development of novel approaches to immunotherapy of lymphoma. He has been continually funded by the NCI since 1991 and has been the PI on the University of Iowa / Mayo Clinic Lymphoma Specialized Program of Research Excellence (P50 CA097274) since it was initiated in 2002. This grant was renewed competitively in 2007 and 2012. Dr. Weiner's research extends from basic laboratory investigation to clinical trials. He was the first to demonstrate Toll Like Receptor 9 agonists could be used successfully as immune adjuvants in tumor immunization. He has made major contributions to our understanding of the mechanisms of action responsible for the anti-tumor activity of monoclonal antibodies, including providing evidence that, in some cases, complement can inhibit the efficacy of some monoclonal antibodies. He has established a number of collaborative research programs, including working with Dr. Aliasger Salem from the UI College of Pharmacy on novel uses of nanoparticles to enhance the anti-tumor immune response.
Current Positions
- Professor of Internal Medicine-Hematology, Oncology, and Blood & Marrow Transplantation
- Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Experimental Therapeutics
- CE Block Chair of Cancer Research
- Director Emeritus, Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center
Education
- MD, Ohio State College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio
- Resident, Internal Medicine, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, Ohio
- Chief Resident, Internal Medicine, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, Ohio
- Fellow, Hematology and Oncology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Graduate Program Affiliations
Licenses & Certifications
- Certification, Amreican Board of Internal Medicine, Hematology
- Certification, American Board of Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology
- Certification, American Board of Internal Medicine
Selected Publications
- Weiner, G. J. Immunostimulatory DNA sequences and cancer immunotherapy. Springer Semin Immunopathol 2000;22(1-2):107-16. PMID: 10944805 DOI: 10.1007/s002810000022
- Welch, D. R., Antalis, T. M., Burnstein, K., Vona-Davis, L., Jensen, R. A., Nakshatri, H., Riegel, A. T., Spitz, D. R., Watson, D. K. & Weiner, G. J. (2015). Essential Components of Cancer Education. Cancer research 75 (24) 5202-5. DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-15-2077. PMID: 26627010.
- Ghesquieres, H., Slager, S. L., Jardin, F., Veron, A. S., Asmann, Y. W., Maurer, M. J., Fest, T., Habermann, T. M., Bene, M. C., Novak, A. J., Mareschal, S., Haioun, C., Lamy, T., Ansell, S. M., Tilly, H., Witzig, T. E., Weiner, G. J., Feldman, A. L., Dogan, A., Cunningham, J. M., Olswold, C. L., Molina, T. J., Link, B. K., Milpied, N., Cox, D. G., Salles, G. A. & Cerhan, J. R. (2015). Genome-Wide Association Study of Event-Free Survival in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Treated With Immunochemotherapy. Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology 33 (33) 3930-7. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2014.60.2573. PMID: 26460308.
- Makkouk, A., Joshi, V. B., Lemke, C. D., Wongrakpanich, A., Olivier, A. K., Blackwell, S. E., Salem, A. K. & Weiner, G. J. (2015). Three steps to breaking immune tolerance to lymphoma: a microparticle approach. Cancer immunology research 3 (4) 389-98. DOI: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-14-0173. PMID: 25627654.
- Rausch Osian, S., Leal, A. D., Allmer, C., Maurer, M. J., Nowakowski, G., Inwards, D. J., Macon, W. R., Ehlers, S. L., Weiner, G. J., Habermann, T. M., Cerhan, J. R. & Thompson, C. A. (2015). Widespread use of complementary and alternative medicine among non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivors. Leukemia & lymphoma 56 (2) 434-9. DOI: 10.3109/10428194.2014.916803. PMID: 24745936.
- Li, Y., Chen, H. L., Bannick, N., Henry, M., Holm, A. N., Metwali, A., Urban, Jr, J. F., Rothman, P. B., Weiner, G. J., Blazar, B. R., Elliott, D. E. & Ince, M. N. (2015). Intestinal helminths regulate lethal acute graft-versus-host disease and preserve the graft-versus-tumor effect in mice. Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 194 (3) 1011-20. DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.1303099. PMID: 25527786.
- Vijai, J., Wang, Z., Berndt, S. I., Skibola, C. F., Slager, S. L., de Sanjose, S., Melbye, M., Glimelius, B., Bracci, P. M., Conde, L., Birmann, B. M., Wang, S. S., Brooks-Wilson, A. R., Lan, Q., de Bakker, P. I., Vermeulen, R. C., Portlock, C., Ansell, S. M., Link, B. K., Riby, J., North, K. E., Gu, J., Hjalgrim, H., Cozen, W., Becker, N., Teras, L. R., Spinelli, J. J., Turner, J., Zhang, Y., Purdue, M. P., Giles, G. G., Kelly, R. S., Zeleniuch-Jacquotte, A., Ennas, M. G., Monnereau, A., Bertrand, K. A., Albanes, D., Lightfoot, T., Yeager, M., Chung, C. C., Burdett, L., Hutchinson, A., Lawrence, C., Montalvan, R., Liang, L., Huang, J., Ma, B., Villano, D. J., Maria, A., Corines, M., Thomas, T., Novak, A. J., Dogan, A., Liebow, M., Thompson, C. A., Witzig, T. E., Habermann, T. M., Weiner, G. J., Smith, M. T., Holly, E. A., Jackson, R. D., Tinker, L. F., Ye, Y., Adami, H. O., Smedby, K. E., De Roos, A. J., Hartge, P., Morton, L. M., Severson, R. K., Benavente, Y., Boffetta, P., Brennan, P., Foretova, L., Maynadie, M., McKay, J., Staines, A., Diver, W. R., Vajdic, C. M., Armstrong, B. K., Kricker, A., Zheng, T., Holford, T. R., Severi, G., Vineis, P., Ferri, G. M., Ricco, R., Miligi, L., Clavel, J., Giovannucci, E., Kraft, P., Virtamo, J., Smith, A., Kane, E., Roman, E., Chiu, B. C., Fraumeni, J. F., Wu, X., Cerhan, J. R., Offit, K., Chanock, S. J., Rothman, N. & Nieters, A. (2015). A genome-wide association study of marginal zone lymphoma shows association to the HLA region. Nature communications 6 5751. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6751. PMID: 25569183.
- Zent, C. S., Call, T. G., Bowen, D. A., Conte, M. J., LaPlant, B. R., Witzig, T. E., Ansell, S. M. & Weiner, G. J. (2015). Early treatment of high risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia with alemtuzumab, rituximab and poly-(1-6)-beta-glucotriosyl-(1-3)- beta-glucopyranose beta-glucan is well tolerated and achieves high complete remission rates. Leukemia & lymphoma 56 (8) 2373-8. DOI: 10.3109/10428194.2015.1016932. PMID: 25676035.
- Weiner, G. J. (2015). Anti-Lymphoma Monoclonal Antibodies: Making Better Antibodies and Making Antibodies Better. Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association 126 87-92. PMID: 26330662.
- Makkouk, A., Joshi, V. B., Wongrakpanich, A., Lemke, C. D., Gross, B. P., Salem, A. K. & Weiner, G. J. (2015). Biodegradable microparticles loaded with doxorubicin and CpG ODN for in situ immunization against cancer. The AAPS journal 17 (1) 184-93. DOI: 10.1208/s12248-014-9676-6. PMID: 25331103.