Brenda Weigel, M.D.

Assistant Professor
Mayo Mail Code 366
420 Delaware St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612) 626-5501
Fax: (612) 624-3913
weige007@umn.edu
Preferred method of contact:  Through assistant-Aandra Erikson @ 612.626.5501

Dr. Brenda Weigel received her medical degree from MacMaster University in Hamilton Ontario after completing a Masters of Nutrition degree at the University of Toronto. She then went on to do a residency in Pediatrics at the University of Western Ontario. After completing her residency she came to the University of Minnesota to do a Fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant. During her 4 year fellowship, Dr. Weigel worked in the lab of Dr. Bruce Blazar developing a murine model of rhabdomyosarcoma. She currently is an Assistant Professor cross-appointed at the University of Minnesota's Cancer Center and the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Weigel received a Young Investigator of the Year Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 1999 and also received a Young Investigator of the Year Award from the Children's Oncology Group in the years 2000 and 2001. She received a Translational Research Award from the Children's Oncology Group and was named the University Pediatric Foundations Scholar for 2002/3. Dr. Weigel was named the Lehman Family/CCRF Chair in 2004. She is the Principal Investigator for the Phase I Program in Pediatric Oncology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Weigel was the National Chair for a Phase I study investigating a new drug, 17-AAG and is also National Chair for the Children's Oncology Study for patients with high-risk rhabdomyosarcoma.

Dr. Weigel's ongoing research focuses on new immunotherapy strategies for pediatric cancers. Her laboratory utilizes 2 models of common childhood cancers, namely rhabdomyosarcoma and AML. The model of rhabdomyosarcoma was established in Dr. Weigel's lab and has been used to develop pre-clinical data to support clinical trials of new agents for this disease. Dr. Weigel is focusing her research efforts on identifying promising new agents that may improve the treatment of childhood cancers. Using her laboratory models, these agents can be identified and screened, then translated into clinical trials for patients.

Honors and Awards

• 1988 NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research Award, University of Guelph
• 1989 Dean's List, University of Guelph
• 1989-1990 Research Training Fellowship, The Research Institute of The Hospital for Sick Children
• 1991-1992 Farquharson Fund - MRC Research Scholarship
• 1995-1996 Chief Resident, Pediatrics, University of Western Ontario
• 1995-1996 PAIRO Residency Teaching Award
• 1998-2000 Chief Fellow, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology,University of Minnesota
• 1999 Young Investigator Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology
• 2000 Young Investigator Award, Children's Oncology Group (formerly known as Children's Cancer Group)
• 2001 Young Investigator Award, Children's Oncology Group
• 2002 Translational Research Award, Children's Oncology Group
• 2003 University Pediatrics Foundation Scholar Award, University of Minnesota
• 2004 Lehman/Children's Cancer Research Fund, Endowed Chair in Pediatric Cancer
• 2005 Alexander Charles Jundt Research Award

Research Interests

1. Immunotherapy for rhabdomyosarcoma
• Novel agents used in combination with chemotherapy and/or surgery
• Understanding the immune mechanisms involved
2. New agents for AML
• Evaluating many new immunomodulatory drugs in an AML model (In conjunction with Dr. John Kersey and Dr. Bruce Blazar)
• Developing new clinical trials using come of these agents

Selected Recent Publications

Smith AR, Repka TL, Weigel BJ, Aprepitant for the control of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting in adolescents.  Pediatr Blood Cancer 45(6): 857-860;2005.

Nagarajan R, Clohisy D, Weigel B.  New paradigms for therapy for osteosarcoma. Curr Oncol Rep 7(6):410-414;2005. 

Fraser CJ, Weigel BJ, Perentesis JP, DeFor TE, Baker KS, Verneris MR. Autologous stem cell transplantation for high risk Ewing’s sarcoma and other pediatric solid tumors. Bone Marrow Transplant 37(2):175-81;2006.

Weigel BJ, Breitfeld PP, Hawkins D, Crist WM, Baker KS. The role of myeloablative chemotherapy with stem cell rescue in the treatment of metastatic or recurrent rhabdomyosarcoma. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 23:272-276, 2001.

Pawlowska AB, Hashino S, McKenna H, Weigel BJ, Taylor PA, Blazar BR. In vitro tumor pulsed or in vivo Flt3 ligand generated dendritic cells (DCs) provide protection against acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) in non-transplanted or syngeneic bone marrow transplanted mice. Blood 97:1474-1482, 2001.

Weigel BJ, Nath N, Taylor PA, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Chen W, Krieg AM, Brasel K, Blazar BR. Comparative analysis of murine marrow derived dendritic cells generated by FLT3L or GM-CSF/IL-4 and matured with immune stimulatory agents on the in vivo induction of anti-leukemia responses. Blood 100:4169-4176, 2002.

Harmala LAE, Inguilli EG, Curtsinger JM, Lucido MM, Schmidt CS, Weigel BJ, Blazar BR, Mescher MF, Pennell CA. The adjuvant effects of mycobacterium tuberculosis heat shock protein 70 result from the rapid and prolonged activation of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells in vivo. J Immunol 169:5622-5629, 2002.

Weigel BJ, Rodeberg DA, Krieg AM, Blazar BR. CpG Oligodeoxynucleotides Potentiate the Anti-tumor Effects of Chemotherapy or Tumor Resection in an Orthotopic Murine Model of Rhabdomyosarcoma. Clin Cancer Research 9:3105-3114, 2003.

Nagarajan R, Weigel BJ, Thompson RC, Perentesis JP. Osteosarcoma in the
first decade of life. Med Pediatr Oncol 41:480-3, 2003.

Sauer MG, Ericson ME, Weigel BJ, Herron MJ, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Kren BT, Levine BL, Serody JS, June CH, Taylor PA, Blazar BR. A novel system for simultaneous in vivo tracking and biological assessment of leukemia cells and ex vivo generated leukemia-reactive cytoxic T cells (CTLs) Cancer Res. 2004 64: 3914-3921.