David B. Weiner, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept. of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine

Gene Therapy and Vaccines Program

Address

505 Stellar-Chance Labs
422 Curie Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6069

Office tel.: 215 349-8591
Fax: 215 573-9436
E-mail: dbweiner@mail.med.upenn.edu


Education

SUNY at Stony Brook, NY: BS (Biology), 1974-1978.

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH: MS (Biology), 1981-1985.

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, Developmental Biology Graduate Program, College of Medicine: PhD, 1981-1986.

Research Interests

• DNA vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer, viral pathogenesis.

Key words: DNA Vaccines, HIV, Viral Protein R., Vaccines.

Search PubMed for articles

Description of Research

The laboratory of Dr. Weiner helped to found the field of DNA vaccines. His laboratory and collaborators were responsible for the first DNA vaccine IND’s. These IND’s were for HIV immune therapy and the first IND approved as a prophylactic for any indication, in this case HIV-1. Over 250 individuals have been vaccinated with DNA vaccines that his group and his collaborators developed in collaboration with Wyeth. These studies established that DNA vaccines appear well tolerated and are immunogenic in humans. Current work focuses on developing a new set of more potent second generation DNA which have exhibited dramatically improved potency in non human primates. These vaccines are being moved into the clinic for HIV prophylaxis as well as immune therapy. Important preclinical studies of immune modulation are a central focus of the lab. Another line of study is the contribution of accessory genes to viral pathogenesis. His group is investigating the role of the Vpr gene product in modulation of host cell immune responses during HIV infection, the role of structural and non structural genes in WNV pathogenesis and the role of the host immune response to control viral replication.

Recent Publications

Kutzler, M & D. B. Weiner, Developing DNA vaccines that call to dendritic cells, J. Clinical Investigation, 114:1241-1244 (2004).

Muthumani, K.,, Choo,  A.Y., Hwang, D.S., Premkumar, A., Nathanael S Dayes, Crafford Harris, Douglas R Green, Wadsworth A Scott, John J Siekierka, David B Weiner*, HIV-1 Nef-induced FasL induction and bystander killing requires p38 MAPK activation, Blood, (2005) 10.1182.

Michele A. Kutzler, Tara M. Robinson, Michael A. Chattergoon, Daniel K. Choo, Andrew Y. Choo, Philip Y. Choe, Mathura P. Ramanathan, Rose Parkinson, Sagar Kudchodkar, Yutaka Tamura, Maninder Sidhu, Vidia Roopchand, J. Joseph. Kim|, George N. Pavlakis, Barbara K. Felber, Thomas A. Waldman, Jean D. Boyer, David B. Weiner, Co-immunization with an optimized IL-15 plasmid results in enhanced function and longevity of CD8 T cells that are partially independent of CD4 T cell help, J. of Immunology, 2005.175:  112 - 123.

Muthumani, K.,, Choo,  A.Y., Zong, Wei-Xing, Madesh, M., Hwang, D.S.,, Premkumar, A., Thieu, K.P., Emmanuel, J. , Kumar, S., Thompson, C.B., Weiner, D. B., The HIV-1 Vpr and glucocorticoid receptor complex: A gain of function interaction that prevents the nuclear localization of PARP-1, Nature Cell Biology, 8, 170 - 179 (2006).

Yan, Jian, Corbett, N., Muthumani, K., Ramanathan, R., Boyer, J., and Weiner, D. B., Enhanced Diversity and Magnitude of Cellular Immune Responses Elicited by a Novel Engineered HIV-1 Subtype B Consensus-based Envelope DNA Vaccine, Nature Molecular Therapy. 15: 411-421. 2007.

Lab

Rotation Projects

Immune responses in non human primates to DNA vaccines.

Engineering molecular Adjuvants to direct the magnitude and efficacy immunogens.

Molecular immunology studies aimed at understanding the induction of cellular immune responses in infectious diseases and cancers.

Molecular approaches to viral pathogenesis.  

Studies of viral accessory gene function and biology.

Lab personnel:

Jian Yian- Postdoctoral Fellow
David Hokey - Postdoctoral Fellow
Matthew Morrow – Postdoctoral Fellow
Dominick Laddy - PhD Student
Kim Schoenly - PhD Student
Lauren Hirao - PhD Student
Krystle Lang - PhD student