Biography

Dr. Braig-Karzig started her career in science at the University of Potsdam, Germany where she earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in biochemistry. For her B.S. and M.S. theses, she transferred to external laboratories: the laboratory of Dr. Zuda Wu at the Charité University Hospital, Berlin and the laboratory of Dr. Zoltán Konthur at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, respectively.

Afterwards Dr. Braig-Karzig moved to Hamburg and earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in 2016. She worked at the laboratory of Prof. Mascha Binder answering oncological questions regarding drug resistance. Her main achievement was the identification and characterization of resistance mediating variants of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and following the fate of specific signaling proteins upon EGFR-targeted antibody therapy in patients with colorectal cancer and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

She joined the Acosta-Alvear laboratory in June 2017.

Publications

1.  Rauch JN,  Valois E, Solley SC, Braig F, Lach RS, Audouard M, Ponce-Rojas JC, Costello MS, Baxter NJ, Kosik KS, Arias C, Acosta-Alvear D, Wilson MZ. "A Scalable, Easy-to-Deploy, Protocol for Cas13-Based Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Genetic Material". BioRxiv, 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.20.052159.

2. Braig F, Kriegs M, Voigtlaender M, Habel B, Grob T, Biskup K, Blanchard V, Sack M, Thalhammer A, Ben Batalla I, Braren I, Laban S, Danielczyk A, Goletz S, Jakubowicz E, Märkl B, Trepel M, Knecht R, Riecken K, Fehse B, Loges S, Bokemeyer C, Binder M. Cetuximab Resistance in Head and Neck Cancer Is Mediated by EGFR-K(521) Polymorphism. Cancer Res. 2017 Mar 1;77(5):1188-1199. PMID: 28031227.

3. Braig F, Brandt A, Goebeler M, Tony HP, Kurze AK, Nollau P, Bumm T, Böttcher S, Bargou RC, Binder M. Resistance to anti-CD19/CD3 BiTE in acute lymphoblastic leukemia may be mediated by disrupted CD19 membrane trafficking. Blood. 2017 Jan 5;129(1):100-104. PMID: 27784674.

4. Kriegs M, Kasten-Pisula U, Riepen B, Hoffer K, Struve N, Myllynen L, Braig F, Binder M, Rieckmann T, Grénman R, Petersen C, Dikomey E, Rothkamm K.Radiosensitization of HNSCC cells by EGFR inhibition depends on the induction of cell cycle arrests. Oncotarget. 2016 Jul 19;7(29):45122-45133. PMID: 27281611.

5. Braig F, Voigtlaender M, Schieferdecker A, Busch CJ, Laban S, Grob T, Kriegs M, Knecht R, Bokemeyer C, Binder M. Liquid biopsy monitoring uncovers acquired RAS-mediated resistance to cetuximab in a substantial proportion of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Oncotarget. 2016 Jul 12;7(28):42988-42995. PMID: 27119512

6. Schieferdecker A, Oberle A, Thiele B, Hofmann F, Göthel M, Miethe S, Hust M, Braig F, Voigt M, von Pein UM, Koch-Nolte F, Haag F, Alawi M, Indenbirken D, Grundhoff A, Bokemeyer C, Bacher U, Kröger N, Binder M. A transplant "immunome" screening platform defines a targetable epitope fingerprint of multiple myeloma.  Blood. 2016 Jun 23;127(25):3202-14. PMID: 27034429.

7. Braig F, März M, Schieferdecker A, Schulte A, Voigt M, Stein A, Grob T, Alawi M, Indenbirken D, Kriegs M, Engel E, Vanhoefer U, Grundhoff A, Loges S, Riecken K, Fehse B, Bokemeyer C, Binder M. Epidermal growth factor receptor mutation mediates cross-resistance to panitumumab and cetuximab in gastrointestinal cancer. Oncotarget. 2015 May 20;6(14):12035-47. PMID: 26059438.

8. Schieferdecker A, Voigt M, Riecken K, Braig F, Schinke T, Loges S, Bokemeyer C, Fehse B, Binder M. Denosumab mimics the natural decoy receptor osteoprotegerin by interacting with its major binding site on RANKL. Oncotarget. 2014 Aug 30;5(16):6647-53. PMID: 25138051.

9. Voigt M, Braig F, Göthel M, Schulte A, Lamszus K, Bokemeyer C, Binder M. Functional dissection of the epidermal growth factor receptor epitopes targeted by panitumumab and cetuximab. Neoplasia. 2012 Nov;14(11):1023-31. PMID: 23226096.

10. Tintelnot J, Baum N, Schultheiß C, Braig F, Trentmann M, Finter J, Fumey W, Bannas P, Fehse B, Riecken K, Schuetze K, Bokemeyer C, Rösner T, Valerius T, Peipp M, Koch-Nolte F, Binder M. Nanobody Targeting of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) Ectodomain Variants Overcomes Resistance to Therapeutic EGFR Antibodies. Mol Cancer Ther. 2019 Apr;18(4):823-833. PMID: 30824613.

Research Area

Fritzi is interested on the molecular mechanisms by which cellular stress responses become rogue cytoprotectors in cancer cells.