George Weiner, MD
Introduction
Dr. George Weiner is a physician scientist who has been on the faculty at the University of Iowa since 1989. He served as Director of the University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1999 until April of 2023 when he stepped down from this administrative role to focus on his research efforts. He also served a co-director of the Iowa/Mayo Lymphoma Specialized Program of Research Excellence in collaboration with his colleague, Dr. Thomas Witzig from the Mayo clinic, from 2002 until 2022. He has had many roles nationally as well. He is a past President of the Association of American Cancer Institutes, served previously as Chair of the NCI committee that reviews the nations cancer centers and chairs the external advisory boards of multiple other cancer centers around the country.
Dr. Weiner’s translational research centers on the immunotherapy of B-cell malignancies and other cancers. Laboratory projects focus on the development of new approaches to cancer immunotherapy, and on exploring the mechanisms of response and resistance to cancer immunotherapy based on an understanding of the tumor microenvironment. The laboratory uses molecular and cellular techniques as well as model systems and is extensively involved in analysis of correlative clinical samples. It serves as a translational hub for a broad range of collaborative cancer immunotherapy projects taking place at the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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.