The Dr. Ralph & Sallie Weaver Professorship of Research Medicine

Ralph Weaver

The Professorship was established in 1992 through the generosity of loyal and dedicated Penn supporters Ralph Weaver, MD (1920–2008), a distinguished member of the Perelman School of Medicine Class of 1944, and his wife Sallie Weaver. The son of a University of Pennsylvania alumnus, Dr. Weaver earned his bachelor’s degree from the University in 1941.

An esteemed clinician, scientist, and businessman, Dr. Weaver dedicated his career to the study of disease. After serving overseas in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during World War II, he took his residency in pathology and served for two years as Director of Laboratories at Anderson Hospital in South Carolina. Dr. Weaver then settled in Butler, PA, where he was a Clinical Pathologist and Director of Laboratories at Butler County Memorial Hospital from 1952 to 1965, serving as President of the Medical Staff from 1962 to 1963. He maintained a private practice, consulted at Deshon Veterans Administration Hospital, and was President and Director of Laboratory Supply Corporation in Pittsburgh, PA. He consulted at Butler County Memorial Hospital until 1985 and later served as Emeritus Physician on that institution’s staff.

 

John D. LambrisCurrent Chairholder
John D. Lambris, PhD

John D. Lambris, PhD is the Dr. Ralph & Sallie Weaver Professor of Research Medicine in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Lambris applies ideas and methods of engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry, biomedicine, and other fields to the study of the structure and functions of the immune system. Specifically, he focuses on the complement system, a group of proteins that work together to destroy foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses.

Dr. Lambris’s laboratory has made fundamental discoveries about the C3 protein that is essential to the complement system. His research team has contributed to the development of complement-based anti-inflammatory therapies that have exhibited consistent efficacy during in vivo trials and show great promise for use in the clinic.

Dr. Lambris is the past President of the International Complement Society. His research has been extensively funded by institutions including the American Cancer Society, the NSF, and the NIH.

Previous Chairholders

  • Nicholas K. Gonatas, MD 1992–2005