Dr. Victoria Weis
Instructor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM)
Dr. Victoria Weis is currently an Instructor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM). Dr. Weis is formally trained in gastrointestinal cell biology and pathophysiology and has expertise in disease modeling in gastrointestinal tissues. Following her Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis, she began her research career as a research technician studying the homeostasis of the stomach epithelium. In 2013, she earned her PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Vanderbilt University. Her thesis work focused on disease progression in gastric metaplasia to understand the pathophysiology and identify potential biomarkers. She continued her early postdoctoral studies at Vanderbilt University supported by a competitive T32 training grant. In this work, she investigated the molecular mechanisms of diarrheal disease in the rare pediatric congenital disorder Microvillus Inclusion Disease (MVID). In 2017, Dr. Weis joined WFIRM as a senior research fellow and promoted to a faculty position in 2021. At WFIRM, she is currently investigating a stem cell-based therapy for Necrotizing Enterocolitis, a life-threatening intestinal disease in premature infants. She has recently earned an American Gastroenterological Association Research Scholar Award for this work.