Faculty

Marco Ruella, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology-Oncology)

Department: Medicine

Graduate Group Affiliations

Contact information

South Tower 8-112
Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
3400 Civic Center Blvd
Philadelphia, PA 191004

Office: 215-746-4880
Fax: 215-573-3638
Lab: 215-573-8538

Email:
mruella@upenn.edu

Publications

Search PubMed for articles

Education:
MD (Medical Degree)
University of Torino, Italy , 2007.

Links
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Research Gate
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Ruella Lab Website
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LinkedIn
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Institute for Immunology and Immune Health (I3H)

Permanent link

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Description of Clinical Expertise

Dr. Ruella treat patients affected by hematological cancers, in particualar lymphoma, myeloma and leukemia and specializes in immunotherapy approaches.

Description of Research Expertise

Marco Ruella, MD is a Physician-Scientist and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Ruella treats patients affected by hematological cancers and specializes in immunotherapy approaches. His laboratory focuses on the mechanisms of relapse after chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) immunotherapies to rationally design innovative combined immunotherapies for relapsing/refractory leukemia and lymphoma.

Dr. Ruella obtained his medical degree with high honors and completed his specialization in clinical hematology at the University of Torino, Italy. He was an attending physician at the Hematology and Cell Therapy Division of the Mauriziano Hospital and was an Instructor at the Biotechnology School at the University of Torino. From late 2012, he was a Post-doctoral Fellow and then an Instructor at the University of Pennsylvania in the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies (Drs. Kalos, Gill, and June). From 2017 to 2018 he served as Associate Director of Dr. Carl H. June’s laboratory.

In 2018, Dr. Ruella was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology and the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies and Scientific Director of the Lymphoma Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and in 2025 he obtained his tenure as Associate Professor. In 2018, Dr. Ruella was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology and the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, and also became the Scientific Director of the Lymphoma Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Throughout his career, he has been honored with numerous awards, including the inaugural SITC EMD Serono Cancer Immunotherapy Clinical Fellowship (2014), the AACR-Bristol Myers Squibb Oncology Fellowship in Clinical Cancer Research (2015), the ASH Scholar Award (2016), an NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award (2017), the ISNAFF “Paola Campese” Award for Leukemia Research (2017), the Cancer Support Community Award (2018), the ASH Joanne Levy, MD, Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement (2018), the Gilead Sciences Research Scholar in Hematology/Oncology and the Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation Award (2020), the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Translational Research Program grant (2021), the Alan Steinberg Award (2022), two NIH R01 Research Project Grant (2025, 2025)and R37 MERIT Award (2022), an NIH P01 Research Program Project Grant (2023), membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation (2023), and the Penn Inventor of the Year (2024). Since 2025 he is Adjunct Professor at his Alma Mater, the University of Turin in Italy.

Dr. Ruella serves as the Senior Editor for Molecular Cancer Therapeutics (AACR) and Associate Editor for the Journal of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). Additionally, he is the inaugural Chair of the SITC Cellular Therapy Committee and the immediate past-Chair of the ASH Scientific Committee on Transplantation Biology and Cellular Therapy
Dr. Ruella treats patients with hematological cancers at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on novel immunotherapies. This clinical engagement allows him to connect with patients, gain insight into unmet needs in the clinic, and teach residents and fellows.

Dr. Ruella serves as a consultant for several companies and sits on the advisory boards of multiple biotech and pharmaceutical firms specializing in cancer immunotherapy. In 2021, he founded viTToria Biotherapeutics, a startup developing next-generation CAR T-cell immunotherapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. The company's first product, VIPER-001, a CD5-deleted anti-CD5 CAR T-cell therapy, is undergoing evaluation in a first-in-human clinical trial for patients with T-cell lymphoma (NCT06420089).

Selected Publications

Liu S, Guruprasad P, Ramasubramanian R, Madhu B, Paruzzo L, Han K, Kelly A, Shestov A, Xu HN, Carturan A, Zhou C, Amses KR, Afriat A, Litichevskiy L, Lin J, Dubowitz E, Tangal N, Zhang J, McSween A, Tan M, Stella F, Lee A, Nason S, Hua X, Schneider M, Sleeman M, Zhang Y, Gabrielli G, Yang Z, Pajarillo R, Patel R, Ghilardi G, Patel V, Joshi A, Jiang S, Jiang Y, Porazzi P, Tchou JC, Keith B, Li M, Chong E, Schuster SJ, Milone M, Rabinowitz J, O'Connor RS, Thaiss CA, Levy M, Ruella M.: β-hydroxybutyrate enhances the metabolic fitness of CAR T cells in cancer. Cell 189(6): 1701-1716, March 2026 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.02.004.

Chen GM, Jain A, Gering DT, Satulovsky J, Datta S, Lai P, Karar J, Gonzalez VE, Alexander K, Chew A, Jadlowsky JK, Ruella M, Paruzzo L, Amses KR, Rech AJ, Stadtmauer EA, Frey NV, Hexner EO, Porter DL, Cohen AD, Gill SI, Garfall AL, Schuster SJ, Mo KC, Liang SI, Spasic M, Levine BL, Siegel DL, Ramírez-Fernández A, Cabanski CR, Yang E, Mackall CL, Bushman FD, Good Z, John Wherry E, June CH, Fraietta JA. : Predictive biomarkers of response to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for pan-haematologic cancer. Nat Biomed Eng March 2026 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41551-026-01633-7.

Ho M, Paruzzo L, Noll JH, Stella F, Devi P, Ndeupen S, Day YA, Chen GM, Cohen IJ, Ramirez-Fernandez A, Waxman A, Kapur S, Chen F, Xu R, Huff A, Jarocha D, Patel V, Bochi-Layec AC, Ramasubramanian R, Liu S, Bouvier R, de Souza VB, Patel H, Li Z, Carturan A, Michener P, Hopkins CR, Koucky O, Minehart J, Dimitri A, Nabar NR, Hasanali ZS, Ciccarelli BT, Hung P, Williams E, Bartoszek R, Lavorando M, Mohan S, Gonzalez VE, Porazzi P, Bhoj VG, Apostolidis SA, Vogl DT, Porter DL, Scholler J, Diorio C, Roche AM, Everett JK, Bushman FD, Nathanson KL, Stadtmauer EA, Susanibar-Adaniya SP, Garfall AL, Ruella M, Cohen AD, Fraietta JA. : CD4(+) T cells mediate CAR-T cell-associated immune-related adverse events after BCMA CAR-T cell therapy. Nat Med. 32(2): 702-716, Feb 2026 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41591-025-04121-8.

Cohen IJ, Bochi-Layec AC, Lemoine J, Jenks S, Bayat P, Kim KH, Zhao H, Ugwuanyi O, Stella F, Ghilardi G, Gabrielli G, McCuaig S, Iatrou A, Vlachonikola E, Karipidou M, Bouziani E, Espie D, Ramasubramanian R, Agathangelidis A, Bhosale A, Paruzzo L, Medico G, Kolar B, Bugrovsky R, Guruprasad P, Wang LP, Harris J, Arons E, Zhang Y, Pajarillo R, Kreiger PA, Day CP, Sahinalp SC, Wu CH, Santi A, Fulmer B, Cases M, Palmer MB, Porazzi P, Wherry EJ, Kreitman RJ, Tiacci E, Apostolidis SA, Behrens EM, Bhoj V, Sanz I, Inghirami G, Schuster SJ, Ghia P, Stamatopoulos K, Ruella M.: Chimeric antigen receptor T cells against the IGHV4-34 B cell receptor specifically eliminate neoplastic and autoimmune B cells. Sci Transl Med 4(18): 835, February 2026 Notes: doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adr9382.

Carturan A, Angelos MG, Guruprasad P, Patel RP, Pajarillo R, Lee AE, Espie D, Zhang Y, Chiang YH, Xie W, Rodriguez JL, Harris J, Devi P, Afolayan-Oloye OI, Xu J, Sussman JH, Elghawy O, Yang AG, Barsouk A, Cho JH, Shaw CE, Singh EB, Ugwuanyi O, Paruzzo L, Stella F MD, Liu S, Nason S, Imparato A, Rotolo A, Lemoine J, Barrett DM, Posey AD Jr, Rook AH, Pillai V, Bagg A, Pileri SA, Liu D, Tan K, Schuster SJ, Teachey DT, Porazzi P, Ruella M. : Harnessing the CD2 axis to broaden and enhance the efficacy of CAR T-cell therapies. Blood. January 2026 Notes: doi: 10.1182/blood.2025031409.

Ang Z, Castro A, Paruzzo L, Schimdt C, Hasanali ZS, Hayer KE, Stella F, Soldan SS, Torres-Diz M, Kwok C, Sainos PK, Ji K, Krohl PJ, Fine J, Sehgal P, Martinez D, Spangler JB, Riley JL, Vogl DT, Porazzi P, Pillai V, Lieberman PM, Allman D, Ruella M, Thomas-Tikhonenko A. : The ancestral haplotype of P2RX5 yields a B-cell surface marker and a multi-lineage immunotherapy target. bioRxiv January 2026 Notes: doi: 10.64898/2026.01.14.698748.

Thomas C, Chung J, Landsburg D, Nasta SD, Svoboda J, Chong E, Schuster S, Carter J, Cook M, Tomasulo E, Elghway O, Lariviere M, Hubbeling H, Plastaras J, Villasenor-Park J, Myers C, Ruella M, Rook A, Kim E, Barta S.: Clinical features and outcomes of patients with non-erythrodermic mycosis fungoides with high blood tumor burden. In Proceedings of 67th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting 2025(560), December 2025

Knoedler L, Herfeld K, Schaefer DA, Diatta F, Clune J, Evans B, Seu M, Kim BS, Alfertshofer M, Schaschinger T, Iske J, Knoedler S, Lellouch AG, Jeljeli M, Carturan A, Ruella M, Heiland M, Poeck H, Perl M, Pomahac B, Kauke-Navarro M.: CAR-T cell therapy and reconstructive oncologic surgery in peripheral solid tumors-A narrative review. Cell Rep Med 6(8), Aug 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2025.102240.

Bochi-Layec A, Cohen I, Lemoine J, Jenks S, Bayat P, Kim KH, Zhao H, Ugwuanyi O, Stella F, Ghilardi G, Gabrielli G, McCuaig S, Iatrou A, Vlachonikola E, Karypidou M, Bouziani E, Ramasubramanian R, Agathangelidis A, Paruzzo L, Bugrovsky R, Guruprasad P, Wang LP, Harris Jaryse, Zhang Y, Pajarillo R, Kreiger P, Fulmer B, Cases M, Porazzi P, Wherry JE, Apostolidis S, Bhoj V, Schuster SJ, Ghia P, Stamatopoulos K, Behrens E, Sanz I, Ruella M. : Precision targeting of pathogenic B cells and autoantibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus using CAR T cells against the IGHV4-34 B cell receptor. In Proceedings of 67th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting 2025(4120), December 2025.

Paruzzo L, Mantione A, Chong E, Nasta SD, Landsburg D, Carter J, Cook M, Fardella E, Bigdeli A, Patel V, Imparato A, Thomas C, Souza V, Carturan A, Stella F, Pucillo M, Pooja D, Tomasulo E, Barta S, Schuster S, Halper-Stromberg E, Ruella M, Svoboda J. : Large B-cell lymphoma following CD19-directed CART-cell therapy failure: Impact of CAR construct on disease features and outcomes of subsequent therapies. In Proceedings of 67th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting 2025(5501), December 2025.