Martin Prlic

Martin Prlic is a Professor in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Fred Hutch) and holds Affiliate Associate Professor appointments in the Department of Global Health and Department of Immunology at the University of Washington. He is an active member of the Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC) and Pathogen-Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center (PAM IRC) at Fred Hutch.

His educational background includes a PhD in Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology from the University of Minnesota (2004) and an MS in Genetics from the University of Salzburg (1999).

Dr. Prlic's research centers on T cell and innate-like T cell responses in mucosal tissues during infections, cancer, and vaccination. His laboratory investigates functional plasticity of T cells in inflammatory environments, with emphasis on bystander activation of memory T cells, mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cell responses, and regulatory T cell dynamics. Using single-cell analysis approaches, his work bridges fundamental immunology with therapeutic applications for infectious diseases and cancer immunotherapy.

He leads the Prlic Lab at Fred Hutch, which actively explores molecular mechanisms of T cell activation and differentiation to develop novel immunotherapeutic strategies targeting mucosal immunity in inflammatory diseases.