Roberto Weigert, Ph.D.

The two central questions that drive Dr. Weigert’s research are how membranes continuously change their shape and composition during trafficking events such as endocytosis and exocytosis at the plasma membrane, and how these processes are deregulated during tumor progression, invasion, and metastasis in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. Specifically, Dr. Weigert and his team have directed their efforts toward understanding the spatiotemporal coordination of actin cytoskeleton, cell signaling, and cellular metabolism, which is essential in controlling membrane remodeling. To address these questions, Dr. Weigert and his colleagues have developed Intravital Subcellular Microscopy (ISMIC), which combines light microscopy techniques, such as two-photon and confocal microscopy, to enable the direct observation of the intracellular process in live animals. This has been complemented with the development of a series of pharmacological, molecular, and genetic tools that have made possible the investigation of cellular processes in vivo at a molecular level.