During my undergraduate years, I became interested in the underlying biology of immune dysfunction and its role in cancer development. I had the serendipity to be interested in combining cancer therapeutics and immunology at exactly the right time. The field of cancer immunotherapy started rapidly growing in the early 2010s due to stunning clinical trial results that demonstrated the effectiveness of immune checkpoint blockade. I matriculated into the Medical Scientist Training Program at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in 2011 to train as a physician-scientist in the exciting new field of cancer immunotherapy. I joined the lab of Dr. Stephen Gottschalk, an immunotherapy expert in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at BCM. During my thesis, I developed an armed oncolytic vaccinia virus to redirect macrophages against tumor cells. I was awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Cancer Institute in 2016 and filed a patent application based on my research.<\/p>\n
Residency training in Internal Medicine at Duke University further strengthened my interest in immunotherapy while also giving me the chance to observe immune-related toxicities. I continued my training by completing Hematology Oncology fellowship at the University of North Carolina -Chapel Hill and worked with the excellent cell therapy research group including Dr Natalie Grover, Dr Barbara Savoldo, and Dr Jonathan Serody. During my medical training, I have been continually reminded that translational medicine exemplifies the intersection of science and medicine, where today\u2019s discovery transforms into tomorrow\u2019s cure. Dedicating time in the laboratory to advance cancer immunotherapy from the bench during my medical training provided a valuable foundation for my future career as a clinician investigator leading immunotherapy-based clinical trials. I am particularly interested in cellular therapies for solid tumor malignancies and how the immune system re am interested in advancing clinical trials to harness the immune system to provide more specific antitumor activity while minimizing toxicities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4588,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"ud_division":[91,63,66],"class_list":["post-4589","ud_entry","type-ud_entry","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ud_division-all-faculty-profiles","ud_division-division-of-hematology","ud_division-hematology-bone-marrow-transplantation","odd"],"acf":[],"ud_entry_custom_fields":{"ud_last_name":"Cao","ud_first_name":"Felicia","ud_gallery_summary":"","ud_telephone":false,"ud_email":"","ud_positions":[{"ud_title":"Assistant Professor of Medicine"}],"ud_options":[],"ud_sort_order":""},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/hematology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1285\/2025\/08\/Felcia-Cao-2025.avif","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/hematology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1285\/2025\/08\/Felcia-Cao-2025.avif","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/hematology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1285\/2025\/08\/Felcia-Cao-2025.avif","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/hematology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1285\/2025\/08\/Felcia-Cao-2025.avif","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/hematology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1285\/2025\/08\/Felcia-Cao-2025.avif","yoast_head":"\n