Dr. Vitetta is Professor of Microbiology, Director of the Cancer Immunobiology Center, and holder of the Sheryle Simmons Patigian Distinguished Chair in Cancer Immunobiology. Dr. Vitetta is an immunologist who does translational (“bench to bedside”) research.  She has published 475 papers, edited several books, is principle investigator on 12 INDs for Phase I and II clinical trials and is a co-inventor on 13 issued patents.  She and her colleagues first described IgD on the surface of murine B cells and she was the co-discoverer of IL-4.  Her group demonstrated that IL-4 was a “switch” factor for Ig on B cells.  Over the past 25 years, she has developed antibody-based “biological missiles” to destroy cancer cells and disease-causing cells.  Novel therapeutics have been evaluated in tissue culture, in animals and, since 1988, in humans.  Dr. Vitetta has also developed and clinically tested a vaccine to protect against ricin.

 Dr. Vitetta is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Association of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Cancer Immunology and the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2006, Dr. Vitetta was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame.  She has been the recipient of the Pierce Immunotoxin Award, an NIH Merit Award, 15 Faculty Teaching Awards, and the FASEB Excellence in Science Award, the American Society of Microbiology Abbott Clinical Immunology Award, the American Association of Cancer Research Rosenthal Prize and the Charlotte Friend Award. She is a founding member of the Southwestern Academy of Teachers and serves on the UT System Academy of Health science teachers and the Board of the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering ad Science. She has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute and the Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of AIDS Research.  She has also served on the editorial board of 20 journals and was Editor-in-Chief of Therapeutic Immunology. Dr. Vitetta was the 1993-94 president of the American Association of Immunologists; in 2002 she received its Mentoring Award and in 2007 its Lifetime Achievement Award.   In 2004, Dr. Vitetta’s former graduate student, Dr. Linda Buck shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology with Dr. Richard Axel.