BOZEMAN — Dr. Irving Weissman, a world-renowned stem cell scientist who currently serves as director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, will deliver a guest lecture, “Stem Cells in Regenerative Medicine, Cancer, and as Rogue Cells in Disease,” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, at Montana State University’s Museum of the Rockies. The event is free and open to the public.
“Dr. Weissman has made many seminal contributions to our understanding of the immune system and the migration of immune cells throughout the body, information that is critical to the rational design of new immune-based therapeutics and vaccines,” said Mark Jutila, Regents Professor and head of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. “His scientific contributions have impacted a broad spectrum of health-related research.”
In 1988, Weissman became the first to isolate any stem cell in any species in pure form when he isolated the blood-forming stem cell in mice. He subsequently isolated the human blood-forming stem cell, the human neuronal stem cell and the human leukemia stem cell. Weissman’s work has opened up an entirely new area of scientific research with enormous potential for life-saving therapies, Jutila said.
Weissman also established the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine to facilitate translation of discoveries in the stem cell field into therapies and to bring them to patients in need.
In addition to serving as the founding director of Stanford’s regenerative medicine institute, Weissman is director of the Stanford Ludwig Center for Cancer Stem Cell Research and former director of the Stanford Cancer Center.
Weissman is a native of Great Falls and a 1961 Montana State College graduate. He received his medical degree from Stanford in 1965. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989 and was named California Scientist of the Year in 2002. In 2008, he won the Robert Koch Prize, which is widely regarded as the leading international scientific prize in microbiology. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy and the American Association of Arts and Sciences. Weissman shared the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research for 2019.
Weissman’s lecture is one in a series of events MSU is hosting this year to celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of Maurice Hilleman, a 1941 Montana State graduate with dual degrees in chemistry and microbiology. Hilleman is credited with saving the lives of millions through the development of a variety of vaccines, including eight of the 14 vaccines commonly given to children. His name is often spoken along with Jonas Salk and Louis Pasteur as pioneers who fundamentally changed human health. To learn more about Hilleman, visit montana.edu/news/11470/.
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