Martin Felices
,
Credentials
PhD

Associate Professor of Medicine
Co-Director, Translation Therapy Shared Resource
Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation
Biography

Bio

Administrator Info
Name: Amirah Muwahid
Email: muwah012@umn.edu

Summary
Dr. Felices received his Ph.D. in immunology from UMASS Medical School in 2008, where his research focused on innate and adaptive immune subsets. He then pursued an industry postdoctoral fellowship at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, in Cambridge, MA, in the Developmental and Molecular Pathways group where he studied signaling pathways involved in liver injury and tumorigenesis. In 2011 he joined the University of Minnesota as a T32 postdoctoral fellow in the HOT division, focusing his research on Natural Killer (NK) cell biology, prior to becoming an assistant professor. Dr. Felices' group focuses on methodologies to improve NK cell immunotherapy, with a particular focus on cytokine signaling and development NK specific biologics. In recent years Dr. Felices has been dedicating most of his effort on a Tri-specific Killer Engager (TriKE) platform to target NK cells to tumors while providing a cytokine signal.

Research Summary

  • NK cell biology (development, survival, and function)
  • Cancer immunology
  • Signal transduction
  • Immune metabolism
  • Immunotherapy Biologic
  • Cytokine signaling
  • Biologic design/production (bi- and tri-specifics)
Research Interests
Bone Marrow Failure Disease

Professional Memberships

The American Association of Immunologists, Society for Natural Immunity
Selected Publications

Selected Publications

Felices, M., Lenvik, A. J., McElmurry, R., Chu, S., Hinderlie, P., Bendzick, L., Geller, M. A., Tolar, J., Blazar, B. R., & Miller, J. S. (2018). Continuous treatment with IL-15 exhausts human NK cells via a metabolic defect. JCI Insight, 3(3). PMID: 29415897 doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.96219,
Felices, M., Kodal, B., Hinderlie, P., Kaminski, M. F., Cooley, S., Weisdorf, D. J., Vallera, D. A., Miller, J. S., & Bachanova, V. (2019). Novel CD19-targeted TriKE restores NK cell function and proliferative capacity in CLL. Blood Adv, 3(6), 897-907. PMID: 30890546 doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2018029371,
Felices, M., Lenvik, T. R., Kodal, B., Lenvik, A. J., Hinderlie, P., Bendzick, L. E., Schirm, D. K., Kaminski, M. F., McElmurry, R. T., Geller, M. A., Eckfeldt, C. E., Vallera, D. A., & Miller, J. S. (2020). Potent Cytolytic Activity and Specific IL15 Delivery in a Second-Generation Trispecific Killer Engager. Cancer Immunol Res, 8(9), 1139-1149. PMID: 32661096 doi: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-19-0837,
Uppendahl, L. D.*, Felices, M.*, Bendzick, L., Ryan, C., Kodal, B., Hinderlie, P., Boylan KLM, Skubitz APN, Miller, J. S., & Geller, M. A. (2019). Cytokine-induced memory-like natural killer cells have enhanced function, proliferation, and in vivo expansion against ovarian cancer cells. Gynecol Oncol, 153(1), 149-157. PMID: 30658847 doi: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2019.01.006 *Uppendahl LD and Felices M are co-first authors,
Vallera, D. A., Ferrone, S., Kodal, B., Hinderlie, P., Bendzick, L., Ettestad, B., Hallstrom, C., Zorko, N. A., Rao, A., Fujioka, N., Ryan, C. J., Geller, M. A., Miller, J. S., & Felices, M. (2020). NK-Cell-Mediated Targeting of Various Solid Tumors Using a B7-H3 Tri-Specific Killer Engager In Vitro and In Vivo. Cancers, 12(9), 2659. doi: 10.3390/cancers12092659,