Kurt R. Weiss, MD

Dr. Kurt R. Weiss is an Associate Professor in the University of Pittsburgh Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Division of Musculoskeletal Oncology. He has joint appointments in Surgical Oncology and Pathology. He serves as an Advisory Dean for the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and as Vice Chair of Translational Research for his Department.

The Musculoskeletal Oncology Laboratory (MOL) is focused on sarcoma metastatic potential. Much of this translational work is accomplished with samples from the Musculoskeletal Oncology Tumor Registry and Tissue Bank (MOTOR) that Dr. Weiss and his clinical partners established in 2012. The MOTOR now holds over 16,000 unique samples from over 600 sarcoma patients with clinical annotation, making it one of the largest sarcoma tissue repositories in the country. This resource provides vital biological reagents for both intramural and extramural sarcoma investigators who collaborate with the MOL.

Dr. Weiss is an author on over 80 peer-reviewed publications. He is on the Mentorship Committee for the Connective Tissue Oncology Society, for which he has also served on the Board of Directors. He has served as Chair of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS) Research Committee. He was part of the inaugural Programmatic Panel for the Department of Defense Rare Cancers Research Program. Dr. Weiss is a founding member of the Pittsburgh Cure Sarcoma (PCS) patient advocacy group, as well as the Pittsburgh Sarcoma Research Collaborative (PSaRC). He is a survivor of metastatic osteosarcoma and ascribes his survival to participation in the Phase II study of muramyl tripeptide phosphatidylethanolamine (MTP-PE) under the direction of Dr. Eugenie Kleinerman.