World Mitochondria Society

Bio

Volkmar Weissig is a Tenured Professor of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He has a second non-tenured appointment as Professor of Biomedical Sciences. He received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry and his postdoctoral Sc.D. degree (“habilitation”) in Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the Martin-Luther University in Halle (Germany). Combined he completed several years of postdoctoral fellowships at the Cardiology Research Center in Moscow (Russia), at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London (UK), at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Science in Prague (CSFR), at University of Florida, Gainesville, FL and at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. Before joining the faculty at Midwestern University, Dr. Weissig was an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University in Boston, MA.  He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Liposome Research and the Journal of Mitochondria, Plastids and Endosymbiosis. In July 2009 he was inducted into the World Technology Network as a Fellow. Since October 2014 Dr. Weissig has been serving as the President of the World Mitochondria Society.  Dr. Weissig’ s interest in mitochondrial research began during the middle of the 1990s when he unexpectedly discovered what nowadays are considered the very first mitochondria-targeted nanovesicles. His work opened a new strategy for specifically delivering nucleic acids and small molecules to mitochondria in living mammalian cells. For example, he and his group demonstrated that the specific delivery of ceramide to mitochondria utilizing novel mitochondriotropic liposomes enhances its cytotoxicity in vitro and in vivo. This work laid the ground for the development of mitochondria-targeted proapoptotic anticancer chemotherapy.  In collaboration with Keshav Singh, Dr. Weissig’ s group also showed already in 2007 the feasibility of mitochondrial transplantation by demonstrating that the xenogeneic transfer of isolated murine mitochondria into human rho0 cells can improve respiratory function.