Profile: Professor Marco Weinberg
- By Wits University
Professor Marco Weinberg is a molecular biologist whose research focuses on the many functions of ribonucleic acid (RNA).
He graduated with a PhD from Wits in 2002 and spent 2 years at the Beckman Research Institute in California, USA as a James Gear postdoctoral fellow studying fast-cleaving hammerhead ribozymes and RNA-based transcriptional modulators.
Thereafter, Weinberg’s work turned to small RNAs that attenuate gene function. He was one of the first to show that small single-stranded RNAs can switch genes off directly using components of a nuclear RNA interference pathway. He has also made significant contributions to the development of novel RNA structures that are processed into safe and useful antiviral inhibitors, specifically against HIV and HBV. Lately, Weinberg’s work focuses on new ways to modulate non-coding RNA genes and how these approaches can be used against latent HIV infection and as useful tools for gene reprogramming.
Weinberg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Haematology in the School of Pathology and an active member of the Antiviral Gene Therapy Research Unit. He is also currently a Visiting Professor at The Scripps Research Institute near San Diego, USA. He has over 46 publications (H index = 15), and has been the recipient of the University’s Friedel Sellschop award in 2009, and the Faculty of Health Sciences’ Research Prize in 2008. Weinberg has supervised or co-supervised five PhD and seven MSc students.