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    John W. Weisel, PhD

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

    John W. Weisel, who received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Brandeis University, is a Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA USA. Research in the Weisel lab covers a variety of aspects of blood clotting and hemostasis, but the primary focus is on molecular and cellular mechanisms of fibrin polymerization, fibrinolysis and platelet aggregation, and the correlations with clinical implications including bleeding, thrombosis and embolization. The research utilizes purified proteins, platelet-poor and platelet-rich plasma, whole blood, and human and mouse hemostasis/thrombosis models. The molecular and cellular mechanisms are analyzed through the use of various biophysical and structural techniques, including visualization of molecules and supramolecular aggregates by transmission and scanning electron microscopy, confocal and deconvolution light microscopy, total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, atomic force microscopy and measurements of mechanical properties of cellular and extracellular structures. Atomic force microscopy is used to characterize the forced unfolding of individual molecules and its role in clot mechanics. We have developed an optical trapping technique that has been to study protein-protein binding/unbinding at the single molecule level, including kinetics and thermodynamics. All of this methodology developed or adapted in my lab has been introduced and taught to other scientists studying 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.

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