Assistant Professor, University of Puerto Rico – Humacao Campus
Biology Department, Affiliated Investigator University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, Cancer Biology Division, Division of Clinical and Translational Cancer Research
Email: kevin.alicea@upr.edu
Dr. Alicea-Torres is a cancer immunologist, principal investigator, and a science communicator. He obtained his B.S. in Microbiology at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Humacao Campus. He completed his Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology at the University of Pennsylvania and conducted his thesis research in cancer immunology at The Wistar Institute. His doctoral dissertation research focused on the development of combinatorial therapeutic strategies to target immune suppressive cells, such as myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), in cancer. Dr. Alicea-Torres has accumulated more than twelve years working in the field of basic and clinical cancer immunology and research. Beyond the bench, he was the director of education and associate director of a NSF and HHMI-funded program, respectively. In addition, he was an AAAS Mass Media Fellow at El Nuevo Dia and is co-founder of Caminos en Ciencia, a science communication platform. Now as an assistant professor at the UPR Humacao Campus and affiliated investigator at the UPR Comprehensive Cancer Center, his research focuses on elucidating the role of immunotherapy and novel therapeutic approaches in reprograming the metabolic activity of immune-suppressive myeloid cells in cancer. His ultimate goal is the design of novel strategies for the therapeutic targeting of immune-suppressive myeloid cells and the development of new, effective methods of immunotherapy for Hispanic cancer patients.
(Updated Oct 5, 2023)