# Irving L. Weissman

Source: https://onco.cc/people/irving-weissman/  
OnCo record `irving-weissman` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Isolated the first blood stem cells and discovered the 'don't eat me' signal CD47 on cancer cells.

## Summary

Irving Weissman is Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor and Founding Director of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, within the Stanford Cancer Institute. A stem cell biologist, he first purified haematopoietic stem cells, defined leukaemia stem cells and identified CD47 as a macrophage checkpoint, the don't eat me signal on cancer cells, leading to magrolimab and the innate checkpoint field. His papers include the Cell report that CD47 is upregulated on circulating haematopoietic stem cells and leukaemia cells to avoid phagocytosis and a PNAS study of the CD47-SIRPa interaction as a therapeutic target in solid tumours. His work bears on acute myeloid leukaemia and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Role: Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor; Founding Director, Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine
- Specialisms: Stem cell biology; Cancer stem cells; Innate immune checkpoints

## Sources

- Stanford profile: https://profiles.stanford.edu/search?q=Irving%20L.%20Weissman
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Weissman%20IL%5BAuthor%5D
- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Irving%20L.%20Weissman

## Connected records

- cancers: [Acute myeloid leukaemia](https://onco.cc/cancers/aml/), [Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/dlbcl/)
- targets: [CD47](https://onco.cc/targets/cd47/)
- drugs: [Magrolimab](https://onco.cc/drugs/magrolimab/)
- institutions: [Stanford Health Care / Stanford Cancer Institute](https://onco.cc/institutions/stanford/)
- key papers: [Reya 2001: stem cells, cancer and cancer stem cells](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-reya-cancer-stem-cells-nature-2001/)
- terms: [Cancer stem cell theory and phenotypic plasticity](https://onco.cc/terms/cancer-stem-cell-theory/)

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