Robin Weiss

Photo: Courtesy of Robin Weiss Robin Weiss characterizes himself as a "one-track scientist." He researches "retroviruses, retroviruses, retroviruses." His colleagues, however, say he's a scientist's scientist who combines his prodigious knowledge with a propensity to ask questions others might not for fear of rocking the boat. Take, for example, the day in March 2001 when Weiss gave the Leeuwenhoek lecture at the London School of Tropical Medicine. According to Robert May, president of The Royal Society, who introduced him, "He began by asking those in the audience who held an organ donor card to raise their hand, and then admonishing those who did not. He followed this by putting on a containment suit and lecturing in it." Currently professor of viral oncology at University College London, Weiss is "much more than one of the world's leading researchers in the general field of virology," May says. "He is also one of the most thoughtful--a rather different thing--as evidenced by his leadership in addressing such questions as the long-term safety aspects of xenotransplantation. And he does all this in a consistently cheerful and bouncy way." Weiss has been a cancer researcher for more than 30 years. Prior to his current appointment, he was director of research at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). He decided to study cancer because it combined intellectual challenge with medical importance, and it encompassed three areas of interest to him: genetics, development, and infection. Retroviruses were a means of understanding cancer. Many of them cause cancer in animals and one causes cancer (T-cell leukemia) in humans. While he was still a graduate student, Weiss made what he calls his "biggest breakthrough," having "stumbled across" the Mendelian inheritance of the retroviral genome in chickens.1 "It's been downhill ever since," he says, with typical self-effacing humor. By 1983 Weiss was director of research at ICR, and his lab was studying the human T-cell leukemia virus. It was natural, he said, for him to switch his attention to HIV, and he made crucial discoveries in record time. In 1984, He showed that antibodies to HIV provide poor protection against infection, but nevertheless were an invaluable tool for screening blood. His work formed the basis for both the British and French blood screening tests. Also in 1984 came the discovery for which he is best known: that the CD4 molecule on lymphocytes is the binding receptor for HIV.2 Thirteen years later, Weiss's lab demonstrated that pig endogenous retrovirus (PERV), which had been lurking in the germ line of pigs for millions of years, could reappear in infectious form and infect human cells in culture.3 For some time, genetically modified pigs had been seen as a promising source of organs for transplantation into humans, but these research findings resulted in a reappraisal of the risks and benefits of xenotransplantation that continues to this day. "Most viruses that infect humans," Weiss says, "viruses that we think of as old--like measles, smallpox, and flu--were introduced into the human population from animal sources within the last fifteen thousand years, when we stopped being hunter-gatherers and began to live in large groups and husband animals." HIV is one such virus. In just 20 years, the AIDS epidemic has grown from "an apparent curiosity to become mankind's major infectious killer, overtaking malaria and tuberculosis." In the face of this devastation, Weiss is keen to highlight the successes as well as the challenges that remain. "Scientifically," he says, "we know as much about HIV as we do about any other virus. There have been enormous advances in screening [to stop transmission by blood] and also in treating infected people with antiviral drugs. AIDS mortality has dropped by two-thirds where drugs are available." But infection is increasing rapidly--particularly in Eastern Europe and Asia. "We seem to be powerless to stop the pandemic," Weiss says, "until we can develop a safe and efficacious vaccine, and that, to my mind, is not yet in sight." As a scientist, what does Weiss find most rewarding? "Discovery and developing useful things for human health," he says. He also enjoys writing imaginative commentaries for Nature.4 Far from being a "one-track scientist," Weiss has been more of a perpetually moving train traveling across the scientific landscape. "Sometimes I was the engine driver; at other times, the ticket collector; but never just a passenger." Arlene Judith Klotzko is writer in residence, Science Museum, London, and a contributing editor. References 1. R.A. Weiss, L.N. Payne, "Heritable nature of factor in chicken cells which acts as a helper virus for rous sarcoma virus," Virology, 45:508, 1971. 2. A.G. Dalgleish et al., "The CD4 (T4) antigen is an essential component of the receptor for the AIDS retrovirus," Nature, 312:763-7, 1984. (Cited in more than 2,380 papers, according to the Web of Science, ISI, Philadelphia) 3. C. Patience et al., "Infection of human cells by an endogenous retrovirus of pigs," Nature Medicine, 3:282-6, 1997. 4. R.A. Weiss, "Gulliver's travels in HIVland," Nature, 410:963-7, 2001.

Robin Weiss

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