David L. Felten, M.D., Ph.D., Brief Biosketch Narrative Summary
David L. Felten, M.D., Ph.D. is an internationally known researcher whose contributions helped to establish the field of psychoneuroimmunology and lay the foundations for the physiological understanding of complementary and integrative medicine. Dr. Felten first demonstrated a direct connection between nerve fibers of the sympathetic nervous system and cells of the immune system in several organs, including the spleen, lymph nodes, thymus, and bone marrow. These nerves are major participants in stress responses and their health consequences. Dr. Felten has shown that these nerve connections can influence the onset and course of cancer, infectious diseases including retroviral infections, autoimmune diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis), and age-related decline in immune responses. He currently is Medical Director of the Beaumont Research Institute at the William Beaumont Hospitals in Royal Oak, MI.
Dr. Felten previously served as Dean of the School of Graduate Medical Education at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ from August of 2003 to Sept of 2005, and Executive Director of the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine, and Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology at the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine in Irvine, CA, from July of 2001 to Sept of 2003. Prior to that appointment, he served for 3 1⁄2 years as the founding Director of the Center for Neuroimmunology at Loma Linda University School of Medicine in Loma Linda, CA. From 1983 to 1997, he was at the University of Rochester, first as Professor, and then as the Kilian J. and Caroline F. Schmitt Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, and as Director of the Markey Charitable Trust Institute for Neurobiology.
David L. Felten, M.D., Ph.D. is an internationally known researcher whose contributions helped to establish the field of psychoneuroimmunology and lay the foundations for the physiological understanding of complementary and integrative medicine. Dr. Felten first demonstrated a direct connection between nerve fibers of the sympathetic nervous system and cells of the immune system in several organs, including the spleen, lymph nodes, thymus, and bone marrow. These nerves are major participants in stress responses and their health consequences. Dr. Felten has shown that these nerve connections can influence the onset and course of cancer, infectious diseases including retroviral infections, autoimmune diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis), and age-related decline in immune responses. He currently is Medical Director of the Beaumont Research Institute at the William Beaumont Hospitals in Royal Oak, MI.
Dr. Felten previously served as Dean of the School of Graduate Medical Education at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ from August of 2003 to Sept of 2005, and Executive Director of the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine, and Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology at the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine in Irvine, CA, from July of 2001 to Sept of 2003. Prior to that appointment, he served for 3 1⁄2 years as the founding Director of the Center for Neuroimmunology at Loma Linda University School of Medicine in Loma Linda, CA. From 1983 to 1997, he was at the University of Rochester, first as Professor, and then as the Kilian J. and Caroline F. Schmitt Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, and as Director of the Markey Charitable Trust Institute for Neurobiology.
