National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (U.S.)

Weiss achieved distinction in the fields of natural products chemistry, medicinal chemistry and synthetic methods. In 1955 he developed a method for synthetically transforming the analgesic Oxymorphone (marketed as Numorphan). While at NIH Weiss studied the analgesic properties of alkaloids (morphine, opium, heroin, codeine), and the synthesis of polyquinanes and polyquinenes.