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John W. Weisel

Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Professor John Weisel is from the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, USA. He received his B.S. from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Brandeis University. He started to work in the field of thrombosis and hemostasis as a post-doctoral fellow with Carolyn Cohen, where he carried out the first X-ray and electron crystallography studies of fibrinogen at a time when the largest protein structures solved were less than a third the size. Subsequently, he characterized the structures of many coagulation proteins and supramolecular protein complexes by electron microscopy. His research covers a variety of aspects of hemostasis and thrombosis, but the primary focus is on molecular and cellular mechanisms of fibrin polymerization, fibrinolysis, platelet aggregation and clot contraction, and the correlations with clinical implications including bleeding, thrombosis and embolization. Some unique structural and biophysical methodology has been developed to carry out this research, including various novel forms of light and electron microscopy, single molecule force spectroscopy using optical traps and atomic force microscopy, and measurements of mechanical properties of cellular and extracellular structures. All of this methodology developed or adapted in his lab has been introduced and taught to other scientists working in the new area of research called the biomechanics of thrombosis and hemostasis. The results of these studies have implications for basic mechanisms of protein-protein and protein-cell interactions as well as for clinical aspects of hemostasis and thrombosis. He is a long-time member of the ISTH, serving on various committees, and a recipient of the ISTH Esteemed Career Award.

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