Matthew D. Weitzman

Matthew D. Weitzman is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). He holds the Arthur Vincent Meigs Endowed Chair in Pediatrics at CHOP and was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2024. His laboratory is located in the Colket Translational Research Building at CHOP.

Dr. Weitzman received his B.Sc. (Honours degree in Genetics) from the University of Leeds, UK (1987) and his Ph.D. in Molecular Virology from Oxford Polytechnic and the Institute of Virology and Environmental Microbiology of the NERC (1991). He completed postdoctoral training as a Fogarty Fellow at NIH (1991-1993) and as a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center (1993-1994).

His research focuses on the dynamic interactions between viruses and host cells when their genomes are in conflict. He pioneered the study of cellular damage sensing machinery as an intrinsic defense to virus infection, particularly examining how DNA damage responses interact with human DNA viruses. His work revealed that the MRN complex is the mammalian sensor of DNA breaks and viral genomes. His laboratory also studies APOBEC3 proteins and their dual role as antiviral factors and potential contributors to genomic instability and cancer.

Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals a consistent focus on virus-host interactions, DNA damage responses, and the role of cellular proteins in both defense against viruses and maintenance of genome integrity. His work spans multiple virus families including Adenovirus, Herpes Simplex Virus, and Adeno-Associated Virus, with recent publications exploring biomolecular condensates, viral packaging mechanisms, and the therapeutic implications of APOBEC-mediated mutagenesis in cancer.

• Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Graduate Student Scholarship (1984-1987)
• Young Investigator Award, American Society for Gene Therapy (2004)
• Foerderer Award, CHOP (2013)
• CHOP Faculty Mentor Award (2016)
• Arthur K. Asbury Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award, UPenn (2020)
• Arthur Vincent Meigs Endowed Chair in Pediatrics (2022-Present)
• Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (2024)

Dr. Weitzman has mentored numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, including Amber Abbott and Nick Grams who are listed as graduate students in his laboratory. His lab maintains an interactive and collaborative environment where students and postdocs explore multiple projects including DNA damage responses during virus infection, viral manipulation of host pathways, epigenetic changes during infection, and host restriction factors.

His laboratory investigates multiple viruses including Adenovirus (Ad), Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-1), and Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV), each with different types of DNA genomes that have developed distinct ways of manipulating host defenses. The lab employs an integrated experimental approach combining biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, and cell biology to probe the dynamic interactions that take place on viral and cellular genomes during infection.