Felicia Cao

Felicia Cao, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Her clinical and research work focuses on cellular therapies for hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, with particular interest in harnessing the immune system to provide more specific antitumor activity while minimizing toxicities.

Dr. Cao completed her medical education at Baylor College of Medicine through the Medical Scientist Training Program, her residency in Internal Medicine at Duke University, and her Hematology Oncology fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During her PhD training, she worked with Dr. Stephen Gottschalk at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, where she developed an armed oncolytic vaccinia virus to redirect macrophages against tumor cells.

Her research interests include:

• Cellular Therapy and Bone Marrow Transplant
• Cancer Immunotherapy
• Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell Therapy
• Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
• Tumor Immunology and Microenvironment

Dr. Cao's publication record demonstrates expertise in immunotherapy approaches for cancer treatment, with recent work focusing on CD30 CAR T-cell therapy complications, optimization of CAR T-cell therapies for glioma, and innovative care models for stem cell transplantation patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her research spans both basic science investigations of immunotherapeutic mechanisms and clinical/translational studies examining patient outcomes.

Among her notable achievements is receiving the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Cancer Institute in 2016. She has also filed a patent application based on her research developing oncolytic vaccinia virus approaches.

Dr. Cao collaborates with an excellent cell therapy research group at UNC including Dr. Natalie Grover, Dr. Barbara Savoldo, and Dr. Jonathan Serody. Her work exemplifies the intersection of science and medicine, where laboratory discoveries are translated into clinical applications to improve cancer treatment.