Michael J. Weber, PhD, an AACR member and former director of the University of Virginia (UVA) Cancer Center, died February 11, 2021, at the age of 78.
Weber graduated from Bronx High School of Science, then earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Haverford College and a PhD in biology from the University of California, San Diego. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley.
Weber was a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1971 to 1984, then joined UVA, where he was the Weaver Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology in the School of Medicine. His research focused on understanding cancer cell signaling as a target for cancer therapy. With colleagues, he helped discover mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAP kinase), a cellular protein that is a key regulator of cell growth and an important drug target in many cancer therapies.
In 2000, Weber was named the director of the UVA Cancer Center. During his tenure as director, Weber presided over the development of the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center and helped expand clinical trials. He advocated for a full integration of basic and translational research, clinical trials, and compassionate patient care. After his retirement, he held the title of director emeritus, and he continued to run a lab. In recent years, his research contributed to the discovery of a novel drug combination therapy for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma.
Weber joined the AACR in 1997. He served on an AACR Career Development Awards Committee and was an invited speaker in a 2004 AACR Special Conference on Advances in Prostate Cancer.
Leave your remembrance of Dr. Weber below.
This is a long shot that Michael's family will read this but my father, Abe Blumenfeld and Palmer were good friends.Palmer was a mentor for our dad and he exposed him to new horizons. Abe was in the printing business and printed a book of Palmer's "harangues" entitled Dear Abe....Good Cheer; maybe you have seen it? Being a poor Yankee boy from the Bronx, Palmer opened doors for him. . I wish Michael were still alive so he could see this; it sounds like he was an amazing man. I will make a donation to UVA in his memory because that's what Abe would have wanted. My granddaughter is entering UVA next year after growing up in KY AND CO so I hope to meet Charlottesville.
Mike was one year behind me in grad school at UCSD, so Betty (who was the VAO of the department, and she and I later married) and I knew Mike and Allison for nearly 60 years. Mike had a marvelous sense of humor and a deep vein of compassion. We came close to moving to U.Va, in part because of the attraction of a relationship with the Webers, and as a result, I became a member of the EAB for their cancer center -- again, in part because it gave us the opportunity to visit them annually. He is a great loss, both professionally and personally. I will miss the occasional e-mails, phone calls, texts, but I will keep the fond memories of 3/4ths of a lifetime.
Mike was a great scientist, leader, mentor and friend. He will be sorely missed.
This is with a heavy heart that I pay my respect, love and gratitude to my beloved friend and guide, Dr. Michael J. Weber. We were together at the University of Virginia where Mike was a professor and I was a Research Instructor in the lab of Dr. Myers. I had a special connection with Mike because of our common interest in signal transduction and apoptosis. We spent hours discussing on critical role of fat metabolism in cancer cell survival and the link between prostate cancer and Western diets. Our relationship grew over time at the UVA (1995-2002) where I received unstinted support from him to start my career. Mike was a wonderful man, full of humor and intuition with piercing eyes of expression. God bless you my dear friend, Mike. RIP.
Mike was a seminal figure in understanding cancer biology, and he was a key driver of UVA's Cancer Center and a wonderful mentor and friend to me and to many throughout his career. We miss him already.
It is sad to learn the passing of Dr. Weber. Mike was a great mentor, inspiring and friendly to everyone. I had the privilege to work under the guidance of Tom Sturgill and Mike Weber during those exciting years of delineating the MAP kinase pathway. He will be truly missed.
Mike was a great scientist and part of arguably the most condensed set of signaling experts in the Microbiology Dept at UVa. Much of the development of TKIs and signaling inhibitors that are used as cancer therapeutics is due to the basic research on kinases that Mike and his colleagues performed.
My condolences to his family and friends. May we be inspired by his research.
We so enjoyed knowing Michael and his family when they were in Illinois and interacting with him in cancer science collaborations and keeping in touch over many years. He had a great spirit and personality. Our warm thoughts and sympathies to his family.