David J. Weber

David J. Weber serves as Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Medicine, with secondary appointments in Medicine. He directs the Center for Biomolecular Therapeutics (CBT), serves as Associate Director of the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR), and co-leads the Translational Working Group within the Marlene & Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC), where he also co-directs the Structural Biology Shared Service.

Dr. Weber's academic credentials include:

• Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Muhlenberg College (1984)
• PhD in Chemistry from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1988)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (1988-1992)

His research integrates structural biology (NMR, X-ray crystallography, cryoEM) with biochemical and molecular techniques to investigate disease mechanisms at atomic resolution. Key discoveries focus on dynamic properties of biomolecular complexes—particularly calcium-binding proteins, tumor suppressors, and bacterial toxins—in cancer, diabetes, and infectious diseases. This work directly enables development of small-molecule inhibitors targeting protein complexes in pathological states.

Major recognitions include:

• Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore
• MPowering the State Professorship
• Johns Hopkins Young Investigator Award (1992)
• American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Research Award (1996)
• American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award (2004)

Dr. Weber leads multiple high-impact grants including NIH R01 CA285468 (developing dual-action cancer therapeutics), R01 EY027405 (vitamin A uptake mechanisms), U01GM152511 (life science accelerator), and NIST funding for cryoEM infrastructure. His laboratory mentors researchers across structural biology, high-throughput screening, and therapeutic development pipelines.

The Center for Biomolecular Therapeutics under his direction operates state-of-the-art facilities including the Structural Biology Shared Service, integrating NMR, X-ray, cryoEM, and biophysical platforms to advance translational research in oncology and infectious disease.