Ellen Vitetta

Who is Ellen Vitetta?

Ellen Vitetta is the director of the Cancer Immunobiology Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Vitetta is an immunologist who does translational research. She and her colleagues first described IgD on the surface of murine B cells and she was the co-discoverer of Interleukin-4. Her group demonstrated that IL-4 was a “switch” factor for Ig on B cells. Over the past two decades, she has developed antibody-based “biological missiles” to destroy cancer cells and cells infected with HIV. These novel therapeutics have been evaluated in tissue culture, in animals and, since 1988, in over 300 humans. In 2001, Dr. Vitetta developed a vaccine against ricin, which has been evaluated in the first clinical trial of such a vaccine.

Vitetta is Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Director of the Cancer Immunobiology Center, and holder of both the Sheryle Simmons Patigian Distinguished Chair in Cancer Immunobiology and a Distinguished Teaching Chair at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. She has published 500 papers, edited several books, and is a co-inventor on 24 issued patents.