Kirstin Anja Zettlitz, Ph.D.

626-218-6358
Kristin Zettlitz
Assistant Research Professor, Department of Immunology & Theranostics
Research Area
Antibody engineering
Antibody fragment-based theranostics: radiolabeled antibodies for immunoPET and radioimmunotherapy of cancer
Dual-modality immunoPET/fluorescence imaging for surgical guidance in prostate and pancreatic cancer
Development of anti-CD20 immunoPET for imaging of B lymphocytes
My research rationale and curiosity have always been driven by the immense promise of antibodies for cancer therapy, and especially by efforts to improve, personalize and expand our understanding of targeted therapies. Kirstin A Zettlitz, Ph.D., is assistant research professor in the Department for Immunology & Theranostics, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope. She also is a visiting scientist at the Department for Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
 
Dr. Zettlitz's research interest focuses on antibody engineering and antibody-based theranostics for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. This includes the radioactive labeling of antibody fragments for molecular imaging applications such as immuno-PET/CT and dual-modality immuno-PET/fluorescence imaging. For radioimmunotherapy, the same antibody fragments are labeled with therapeutic radionuclides.
 
Dr. Zettlitz received her diploma in technical biology (B.Sc. and M.Sc. equivalent) at University of Stuttgart, Germany. She received her Dr. rer. nat. (Ph.D. equivalent) in antibody engineering from the Institute of Cell Biology and Immunology at University of Stuttgart, Germany. She continued her training in the U.S. with postdoctoral research in antibody engineering and molecular imaging at UCLA.
Location
Education & Experience
Degrees

  • 2010, Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering / Immunology, University of Stuttgart, Germany

  • 2007, M.Sc., Technical Biology, University of Stuttgart, Germany

  • 2000, B.Sc., Technical Biology, University of Stuttgart, Germany

Fellowship

  • 2016, Postdoctoral, Antibody Engineering/Molecular Imaging, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

Professional Experience

  • 2020-present, Assistant Research Professor, Department of Immunology & Theranostics, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte CA

  • 2018-2020, Assistant Research Professor, Department of Molecular Imaging & Therapy, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA

  • 2016-2018, Assistant Researcher, Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

  • 2010-2016, Postdoctoral Scholar at Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Awards & Memberships
Awards

  • 2013, World Molecular Imaging Conference, Student Travel Stipend Award

  • 2012, World Molecular Imaging Conference, Student Travel Stipend Award

  • 2009, IBC Antibody Engineering & Therapeutics, Student Poster Scholarship

Publications
  • Tsai WK, Zettlitz KA, Dahlbom M, Reiter RE, Wu AM. Evaluation of [131I]I- and [177Lu]Lu- DTPA-A11 Minibody for Radioimmunotherapy in a Preclinical Model of PSCA-Expressing Prostate Cancer. Mol Imaging Biol. (2020) 2020 Oct;22(5):1380-1391.
  • Gamache RF, Zettlitz KA, Tsai WK, Collins J, Wu AM and Murphy JM. "Tri-functional platform for construction of modular antibody fragments for in vivo18F-PET or NIRF molecular imaging." Chemical Science. 2020;11 (7), 1832-1838.
  • Kim H, Javed MR, Chen S, Zettlitz KA, Collins J, Wu AM, Kim CJ, van Dam RM, Keng PY. On-demand radiosynthesis of N-succinimidyl-4-[18F]fluorobenzoate ([18F]SFB) on the electrowetting-on-dielectric microfluidic chip for 18F-labeling of protein. RSC Advances. 2019;9:32175-32183.
  • Zettlitz KA, Tsai WK, Knowles SM, Salazar FB, Kobayashi N, Reiter RE, Wu AM. [89Zr]A2cDb Immuno-PET of Prostate Cancer in a Human Prostate Stem Cell Antigen Knock-in (hPSCA KI) Syngeneic Model. Mol Imaging Biol. 2019;22 (2), 367-376
  • Zettlitz KA, Waldmann CM, Tsai WK, Tavaré R, Collins J, Murphy JM, Wu AM. A dual- modality linker enables site-specific conjugation of antibody fragments for 18F-immunoPET and far-red fluorescence imaging. J Nucl Med. 2019;60:1467-1473.
  • Zettlitz KA, Tavaré R, Tsai WK, Yamada RE, Ha NS, Collins J, van Dam RM, Timmerman JM, Wu AM. 18F-labeled anti-human CD20 cys-diabody for same-day immunoPET in a model of aggressive B-cell lymphoma in human CD20 transgenic mice. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2019 Feb;46(2):489-500.
  • Richter F, Zettlitz KA, Seifert O, Herrmann A, Scheurich P, Pfizenmaier K, et al. Monovalent TNF receptor 1-selective antibody with improved affinity and neutralizing activity. MAbs. 2019 Jan;11(1):166-177.
  • Zhang M, Kobayashi N, Zettlitz KA, Kono EE, Yamashiro J, Tran CP, Tsai WK, Wu AM, Reiter RE. Near-infrared-dye labeled anti-prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) A11 minibody enables intraoperative fluorescence imaging and targeted surgery in translational mouse models of prostate cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2019 Jan 1;25(1):188-200.
  • Tsai WK, Zettlitz KA, Tavaré R, Kobayashi N, Reiter RE, Wu AM. Dual-modality ImmunoPET/fluorescence imaging of prostate cancer with an anti-PSCA cys-minibody. Theranostics. 2018;8(21):5903-14.
  • Zettlitz KA, Tsai WK, Knowles SM, Kobayashi N, Donahue TR, Reiter RE, et al. Dual- modality immunoPET and near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging of pancreatic cancer using an anti-prostate cancer stem cell antigen (PSCA) cys-diabody. J Nucl Med. 2018 Sep;59(9):1398-1405
  • Freise AC, Zettlitz KA, Salazar FB, Tavaré R, Tsai WK, Hadjioannou A, et al. ImmunoPET in inflammatory bowel disease: Imaging CD4+ T cells in a murine model of colitis. J Nucl Med. 2018; 59:980-985.
  • Zettlitz KA, Tavaré R, Knowles SM, Steward KK, Timmerman JM, Wu AM. ImmunoPET of malignant and normal B cells with 89Zr- and 124I-labeled obinutuzumab antibody fragments reveals differential CD20 internalization in vivo. Clin Cancer Res. 2017;23(23):7242-52.
  • Freise AC, Zettlitz KA, Salazar FB, Lu X, Tavaré R, Wu AM. ImmunoPET Imaging of Murine CD4+ T Cells Using Anti-CD4 Cys-Diabody: Effects of Protein Dose on T Cell Function and Imaging. Mol Imaging Biol. 2017;19(4):599-609.
  • Tavaré R, Escuin-Ordinas H, Mok S, McCracken MN, Zettlitz KA, Salazar FB, et al. An Effective Immuno-PET Imaging Method to Monitor CD8-Dependent Responses to Immunotherapy. Cancer Res. 2016;76(1):73-82.
  • Sonn GA, Behesnilian AS, Jiang ZK, Zettlitz KA, Lepin EJ, Bentolila LA, et al. Fluorescent Image-Guided Surgery with an Anti-Prostate Stem Cell Antigen (PSCA) Diabody Enables Targeted Resection of Mouse Prostate Cancer Xenografts in Real Time. Clin Cancer Res. 2016;22(6):1403-12.
  • White JB, Boucher DL, Zettlitz KA, Wu AM, Sutcliffe JL. Development and characterization of an alphavbeta6-specific diabody and a disulfide-stabilized alphavbeta6-specific cys- diabody. Nucl Med Biol. 2015;42(12):945-57.
  • Li K, Zettlitz KA, Lipianskaya J, Zhou Y, Marks JD, Mallick P, et al. A fully human scFv phage display library for rapid antibody fragment reformatting. Protein Eng Des Sel. 2015;28(10):307-16.
  • Tavaré R, McCracken MN, Zettlitz KA, Salazar FB, Olafsen T, Witte ON, et al. Immuno-PET of Murine T Cell Reconstitution Postadoptive Stem Cell Transplantation Using Anti-CD4 and Anti-CD8 Cys-Diabodies. J Nucl Med. 2015;56(8):1258-64.
  • Knowles SM, Tavaré R, Zettlitz KA, Rochefort MM, Salazar FB, Jiang ZK, et al. Applications of immunoPET: using 124I-anti-PSCA A11 minibody for imaging disease progression and response to therapy in mouse xenograft models of prostate cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2014;20(24):6367-78.
  • Li K, Tavaré R, Zettlitz KA, Mumenthaler SM, Mallick P, Zhou Y, et al. Anti-MET immunoPET for non-small cell lung cancer using novel fully human antibody fragments. Mol Cancer Ther. 2014;13(11):2607-17.
  • Tavaré R, Wu WH, Zettlitz KA, Salazar FB, McCabe KE, Marks JD, et al. Enhanced immunoPET of ALCAM-positive colorectal carcinoma using site-specific (6)(4)Cu-DOTA conjugation. Protein Eng Des Sel. 2014;27(10):317-24.
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