Biomedical Graduate Studies

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).