Medical Director, Clinical Trials, Masonic Cancer Center
Research Program: Transplant Biology and Therapy
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Director, Division of Pediatrics Hematology/Oncology
Lehman/Children's Cancer Research Fund Endowed Chair in Pediatric Cancer

weige007@umn.edu
612-626-5501 — office
Preferred method of contact: office phone

Dr. Weigel's clinical profile
(University of Minnesota Physicians website)

Dr. Weigel received her medical degree from MacMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and conducted her residency in pediatrics at the University of Western Ontario. She came to the University of Minnesota in 1996 to conduct a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant. During her four-year fellowship, Dr. Weigel worked in the laboratory of Bruce Blazar, M.D., and developed a murine model of rhabdomyosarcoma.

Dr. Weigel is currently the Director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. She is an associate professor cross-appointed at the University of Minnesota's Cancer Center and the Department of Pediatrics, and the recipient of the Lehman/Children's Cancer Research Fund Endowed Chair in Pediatric Cancer. She is also the Co-Director of the Sarcoma Program for the Masonic Cancer Center, and an Associate Director of the Cancer Experimental Therapeutics Initiative for the Masonic Cancer Center.

Research Interests

Dr. Weigel's translational research interests are centered in her extensive involvement with the Children's Oncology Group (COG). Her responsibilities with the COG include:

• Vice Chair, Developmental Therapeutics
• Co-chair for New High Risk Rhabdomyosarcoma Study
• Chair, Phase II Study of IGFR Antibody
• Chair, High Risk Rhabdomyosarcoma Study

Her major interests have been advancing new therapies, particularly therapies that harness the immune system's role in fighting cancer.

Selected Publications

Zhou Q, Munger ME, Veenstra RG, Weigel BJ, Hirashima M, Munn DH, Murphy WJ, Azuma M, Anderson AC, Kuchroo VK, Blazar BR. Co-expression of Tim-3 and PD-1 identifies a CD8+ T-cell exhaustion phenotype in mice with disseminated acute myelogenous leukemia. Blood. 2011;117:4501-4510.

Beck JC, Cao Q, Trotz B, Smith AR, Weigel BJ, Verneris MR, Burke MJ. Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation Detection for children with B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia and early or late BM relapse. Bone Marrow Transplant 2010; [Epub ahead of print].

Geller M, Cooley S, Argenta P, Downs L, Carson L, Judson P, Ghebre R, Weigel B, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Curtsinger J, Miller J. Toll-like receptor-7 (TLR-7) agonist administered subcutaneously in a prolonged dosing schedule in heavily pretreated recurrent breast, ovarian, and cervix cancers. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 59:1877-1884.

Zhou Q, Munger ME, Highfill WE, Tolar J, Weigel BJ, Riddle M, Sharpe AH, Vallera DA, Azuma M, Levine BL, June CH, Murphy WJ, Munn DH, Blazar, BR. Program death-1 (PD-1) signaling and regulatory T cells (Tregs) collaborate to resist the function of adoptively transferred cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) in advanced acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Blood 2010;116:2484-2493.

Ahn YO, Weigel B, Verneris MR. Killing the killer: natural killer cells to treat Ewing’s sarcoma. Clin Cancer Res 2010;16:3819-3821.

Burke MJ, Cao Q, Trotz B, Weigel B, Kumar A, Smith A, Verneris MR. Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allogeneic HCT) for treatment of pediatric Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2009;53:1289-1294.

Zhou Q, Bucher C, Munger ME, Highfill SL, Tolar J, Munn DH, Levine B, Riddle M, June CH, Vallera DA, Weigel BJ, Blazar BR. Depletion of endogenous tumor-associated regulatory T cells improves the efficacy of adoptive immunotherapy in murine acute myeloid leukemia. Blood 114(18):3793-802, 2009.

Taylor PA, Ehrhardt MJ, Lees CJ, Tolar J, Weigel BJ, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Serody JS, Brinkmann V, Blazar BR. Insights into the mechanism of FTY720 and compatibility with regulatory T cells for the inhibition of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Blood 110(9):3480-8, 2007.

Weigel BJ, Blaney SM, Reid JM, Safgren SL, Bagatell R, Kersey J, Neglia JP, Ivy SP, Ingle AM, Whitesell L, Gilbertson RJ, Krailo M, Ames M, Adamson PC. A phase I study of 17-allylaminogeldanamycin in relapsed/refractory pediatric patients with solid tumors: a Children's Oncology Group study. Clin Cancer Res 13(6):1789-93, 2007.

Yao Q, Weigel B, Kersey J. Synergism between etoposide and 17-AAG in leukemia cells: critical roles for Hsp90, FLT3, topoisomerase II, Chk1, and Rad51. Clin Cancer Res 13(5):1591-600, 2007.

Weigel BJ, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Diers M, Garcia M, Lees C, Krieg AM, Chen W, Blazar BR. Dendritic cells pulsed or fused with AML cellular antigen provide comparable in vivo antitumor protective responses. Exp Hematol 34(10):1403-12, 2006.

Fraser CJ, Weigel BJ, Perentesis JP, Dusenbery KE, DeFor TE, Baker KS, Verneris MR. Autologous stem cell transplantation for high-risk Ewing's sarcoma and other pediatric solid tumors. Bone Marrow Transplant 37(2):175-81, 2006.

Smith AR, Repka TL, Weigel BJ. Aprepitant for the control of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting in adolescents. Pediatr Blood Cancer 45(6):857-60, 2005.

Nagarajan R, Clohisy D, Weigel B. New paradigms for therapy for osteosarcoma. Curr Oncol Rep. 2005;7:410-414.

Sauer MG, Ericson ME,Weigel BJ, Herron MJ, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Kren BT, Levine BL, Serody JS, June CH, Taylor PA, Blazar BR. A novel system for simultaneous in vivo tracking and biological assessment of leukemia cells and ex vivo generated leukemia-reactive cytotoxic T cells. Cancer Res.2004;64:3914-21, 2004.

Weigel BJ, Rodeberg DA, Krieg AM, Blazar BR. CpG oligodeoxynucleotides potentiate the antitumor effects of chemotherapy or tumor resection in an orthotopic murine model of rhabdomyosarcoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2003;9:3105-3114.

Harmala LAE, Ingulli EG, Curtsinger JM, Lucido MM, Schmidt CS, Weigel BJ, Blazar BR, Mescher MF, Pennell CA. The adjuvant effects of Mycobacterium tuberculosis heat shock protein 70 result from the rapid and prolonged activation of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells in vivo. J Immunol. 2002;169:5622-5629.

Weigel BJ, Nath N, Taylor PA, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Chen W, Krieg AM, Brasel K, Blazar BR. Comparative analysis of murine marrow-derived dendritic cells generated by Flt3L or GM-CSF/IL-4 and matured with immune stimulatory agents on the in vivo induction of antileukemia responses. Blood 2002;100:4169-4176.

Pawlowska AB, Hashino S, McKenna H, Weigel BJ, Taylor PA, Blazar BR. In vitro tumor-pulsed or in vivo Flt3 ligand-generated dendritic cells provide protection against acute myelogenous leukemia in nontransplanted or syngeneic bone marrow-transplanted mice. Blood 2001;97:1474-1482.

Weigel BJ, Breitfeld PP, Hawkins D, Crist WM, Baker KS. Role of high-dose chemotherapy with hematopoietic stem cell rescue in the treatment of metastatic or recurrent rhabdomyosarcoma. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 2001;23:272-276.