Giannicola Genovese, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology - Research, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2014 | Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome, ITA, PHD, Oncology and Cancer Biology |
| 2004 | University of Rome "La Sapienza", Rome, ITA, MD, Medicine |
Postgraduate Training
| 2009-2011 | Visiting Fellowship, Genomic Medicine, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA |
| 2007-2009 | Visiting Fellowship, Medical Oncology, Columbia University/Herbert Irving Cancer Center, New York, NY |
| 2004-2004 | Internship, Pathology, Neurological Institute, Rome |
| 2004-2008 | Clinical Fellowship, Internal Medicine/Oncology, Catholic University of Rome, Rome |
| 2004-2004 | Internship, Pathology, University of Rome, Rome |
Experience & Service
Academic Appointments
Instructor, Department of Genomic Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2012 - 2017
Instructor, Department of Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard University, Boston, MA, 2011 - 2012
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Msaouel P, Hong AL, Mullen EA, Atkins MB, Walker CL, Lee CH, Carden MA, Genovese G, Linehan WM, Rao P, Merino MJ, Grodman H, Dome JS, Fernandez CV, Geller JI, Apolo AB, Daw NC, Hodges HC, Moxey-Mims M, Wei D, Bottaro DP, Staehler M, Karam JA, Rathmell WK, Tannir NM. Updated Recommendations on the Diagnosis, Management, and Clinical Trial Eligibility Criteria for Patients With Renal Medullary Carcinoma. Clin Genitourin Cancer 17(1):1-6, 2019. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30287223.
- Seth S, Li CY, Ho IL, Corti D, Loponte S, Sapio L, Del Poggetto E, Yen EY, Robinson FS, Peoples M, Karpinets T, Deem AK, Kumar T, Song X, Jiang S, Kang Y, Fleming J, Kim M, Zhang J, Maitra A, Heffernan TP, Giuliani V, Genovese G, Futreal A, Draetta GF, Carugo A, Viale A. Pre-existing Functional Heterogeneity of Tumorigenic Compartment as the Origin of Chemoresistance in Pancreatic Tumors. Cell Rep 26(6):1518-1532.e9, 2019. PMID: 30726735.
- Carugo A, Minelli R, Sapio L, Soeung M, Carbone F, Robinson FS, Tepper J, Chen Z, Lovisa S, Svelto M, Amin S, Srinivasan S, Del Poggetto E, Loponte S, Puca F, Dey P, Malouf GG, Su X, Li L, Lopez-Terrada D, Rakheja D, Lazar AJ, Netto GJ, Rao P, Sgambato A, Maitra A, Tripathi DN, Walker CL, Karam JA, Heffernan TP, Viale A, Roberts CWM, Msaouel P, Tannir NM, Draetta GF, Genovese G. p53 Is a Master Regulator of Proteostasis in SMARCB1-Deficient Malignant Rhabdoid Tumors. Cancer Cell 35(2):204-220.e9, 2019. PMID: 30753823.
- Lovisa S, Genovese G, Danese S. Role of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in inflammatory bowel disease. J Crohns Colitis. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30520951.
- Farshidfar F, Zheng S, Gingras MC, Newton Y, Shih J, Robertson AG, Hinoue T, Hoadley KA, Gibb EA, Roszik J, Covington KR, Wu CC, Shinbrot E, Stransky N, Hegde A, Yang JD, Reznik E, Sadeghi S, Pedamallu CS, Ojesina AI, Hess JM, Auman JT, Rhie SK, Bowlby R, Borad MJ, Cancer Genome Atlas Network, Zhu AX, Stuart JM, Sander C, Akbani R, Cherniack AD, Deshpande V, Mounajjed T, Foo WC, Torbenson MS, Kleiner DE, Laird PW, Wheeler DA, McRee AJ, Bathe OF, Andersen JB, Bardeesy N, Roberts LR, Kwong LN. Integrative Genomic Analysis of cholangiocarcinoma identifies distinct IDH-mutant molecular profiles. Cell Rep 18(11):2780-2794, 2017. PMID: 28297679.
- Genovese G, Carugo A, Tepper J, Robinson FS, Li L, Svelto M, Nezi L, Corti D, Minelli R, Pettazzoni P, Gutschner T, Wu CC, Seth S, Akdemir KC, Leo E, Amin S, Molin MD, Ying H, Kwong LN, Colla S, Takahashi K, Ghosh P, Giuliani V, Muller F, Dey P, Jiang S, Garvey J, Liu CG, Zhang J, Heffernan TP, Toniatti C, Fleming JB, Goggins MG, Wood LD, Sgambato A, Agaimy A, Maitra A, Roberts CW, Wang H, Viale A, DePinho RA, Draetta GF, Chin L. Synthetic vulnerabilities of mesenchymal subpopulations in pancreatic cancer. Nature 542(7641):362-366, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28178232.
- Dey P, Baddour J, Muller F, Wu CC, Wang H, Liao WT, Lan Z, Chen A, Gutschner T, Kang Y, Fleming J, Satani N, Zhao D, Achreja A, Yang L, Lee J, Chang E, Genovese G, Viale A, Ying H, Draetta G, Maitra A, Wang YA, Nagrath D, DePinho RA. Genomic deletion of malic enzyme 2 confers collateral lethality in pancreatic cancer. Nature 542(7639):119-123, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28099419.
- Carugo A, Genovese G, Seth S, Nezi L, Rose JL, Bossi D, Cicalese A, Shah PK, Viale A, Pettazzoni PF, Akdemir KC, Bristow CA, Robinson FS, Tepper J, Sanchez N, Gupta S, Estecio MR, Giuliani V, Dellino GI, Riva L, Yao W, Di Francesco ME, Green T, D'Alesio C, Corti D, Kang Y, Jones P, Wang H, Fleming JB, Maitra A, Pelicci PG, Chin L, DePinho RA, Lanfrancone L, Heffernan TP, Draetta GF. In Vivo Functional Platform Targeting Patient-Derived Xenografts Identifies WDR5-Myc Association as a Critical Determinant of Pancreatic Cancer. Cell Rep 16(1):133-47, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27320920.
- Gutschner T, Haemmerle M, Genovese G, Draetta GF, Chin L. Post-translational Regulation of Cas9 during G1 Enhances Homology-Directed Repair. Cell Rep 14(6):1555-66, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 26854237.
- Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network. Genomic Classification of Cutaneous Melanoma. Cell, 2015.
- Colla S, Ong DS, Ogoti Y, Marchesini M, Mistry NA, Clise-Dwyer K, Ang SA, Storti P, Viale A, Giuliani N, Ruisaard K, Ganan Gomez I, Bristow CA, Estecio M, Weksberg DC, Ho YW, Hu B, Genovese G, Pettazzoni P, Multani AS, Jiang S, Hua S, Ryan MC, Carugo A, Nezi L, Wei Y, Yang H, D'Anca M, Zhang L, Gaddis S, Gong T, Horner JW, Heffernan TP, Jones P, Cooper LJ, Liang H, Kantarjian H, Wang YA, Chin L, Bueso-Ramos C, Garcia-Manero G, DePinho RA.. Telomere Dysfunction Drives Aberrant Hematopoietic Differentiation and Myelodysplastic Syndrome. Cancer Cell, 2015. PMID: 25965571.
- Pettazzoni P, Viale A, Shah P, Carugo A, Ying H, Wang H, Genovese G, Seth S, Minelli R, Green T, Huang-Hobbs E, Corti D, Sanchez N, Nezi L, Marchesini M, Kapoor A, Yao W, Francesco ME, Petrocchi A, Deem AK, Scott K, Colla S, Mills GB, Fleming JB, Heffernan TP, Jones P, Toniatti C, DePinho RA, Draetta GF. Genetic Events That Limit the Efficacy of MEK and RTK Inhibitor Therapies in a Mouse Model of KRAS-Driven Pancreatic Cancer. Cancer Research, 2015. PMID: 25736685.
- Watson IR, Li L, Cabeceiras PK, Mahdavi M, Gutschner T, Genovese G, Wang G, Fang Z, Tepper JM, Stemke-Hale K, Tsai KY, Davies MA, Mills GB, Chin L. The RAC1 P29S hotspot mutation in melanoma confers resistance to pharmacological inhibition of RAF. Cancer Res, 2014. PMID: 25056119.
- Viale A, Pettazzoni P, Lyssiotis CA, Ying H, Sánchez N, Marchesini M, Carugo A, Green T, Seth S, Giuliani V, Kost-Alimova M, Muller F, Colla S, Nezi L, Genovese G, Deem AK, Kapoor A, Yao W, Brunetto E, Kang Y, Yuan M, Asara JM, Wang YA, Heffernan TP, Kimmelman AC, Wang H, Fleming JB, Cantley LC, DePinho RA, Draetta GF. Oncogene ablation-resistant pancreatic cancer cells depend on mitochondrial function. Nature, 2014. PMID: 25119024.
- Brennan CW, Verhaak RG, McKenna A, Campos B, Noushmehr H, Salama SR, Zheng S, Chakravarty D, Sanborn JZ, Berman SH, Beroukhim R, Bernard B, Wu CJ, Genovese G, Shmulevich I, Barnholtz-Sloan J, Zou L, Vegesna R, Shukla SA, Ciriello G, Yung WK, Zhang W, Sougnez C, Mikkelsen T, Aldape K, Bigner DD, Van Meir EG, Prados M, Sloan A, Black KL, Eschbacher J, Finocchiaro G, Friedman W, Andrews DW, Guha A, Iacocca M, O'Neill BP, Foltz G, Myers J, Weisenberger DJ, Penny R, Kucherlapati R, Perou CM, Hayes DN, Gibbs R, Marra M, Mills GB, Lander E, Spellman P, Wilson R, Sander C, Weinstein J, Meyerson M, Gabriel S, Laird PW, Haussler D, Getz G, Chin L, TCGA Research Network. The somatic genomic landscape of glioblastoma. Cell 155(2):462-77, 2013. PMID: 24120142.
- Kwong LN, Costello JC, Liu H, Jiang S, Helms TL, Langsdorf AE, Jakubosky D, Genovese G, Muller FL, Jeong JH, Bender RP, Chu GC, Flaherty KT, Wargo JA, Collins JJ, Chin L. Oncogenic NRAS signaling differentially regulates survival and proliferation in melanoma. Nat Med 18(10):1503-10, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22983396.
- Genovese G, Ergun A, Shukla SA, Campos B, Hanna J, Ghosh P, Quayle SN, Rai K, Colla S, Ying H, Wu CJ, Sarkar S, Xiao Y, Zhang J, Zhang H, Kwong L, Dunn K, Wiedemeyer WR, Brennan C, Zheng H, Rimm DL, Collins JJ, Chin L. microRNA regulatory network inference identifies miR-34a as a novel regulator of TGF-β signaling in glioblastoma. Cancer Discov 2(8):736-49, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22750848.
- Muller FL, Colla S, Aquilanti E, Manzo VE, Genovese G, Lee J, Eisenson D, Narurkar R, Deng P, Nezi L, Lee MA, Hu B, Hu J, Sahin E, Ong D, Fletcher-Sananikone E, Ho D, Kwong L, Brennan C, Wang YA, Chin L, DePinho RA. Passenger deletions generate therapeutic vulnerabilities in cancer. Nature 488(7411):337-42, 2012. PMID: 22895339.
- Genovese G, Ghosh P, Li H, Rettino A, Sioletic S, Cittadini A, Sgambato A. The tumor suppressor HINT1 regulates MITF and β-catenin transcriptional activity in melanoma cells. Cell Cycle 11(11):2206-15, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22647378.
- Dunn GP, Rinne ML, Wykosky J, Genovese G, Quayle SN, Dunn IF, Agarwalla PK, Chheda MG, Campos B, Wang A, Brennan C, Ligon KL, Furnari F, Cavenee WK, Depinho RA, Chin L, Hahn WC. Emerging insights into the molecular and cellular basis of glioblastoma. Genes Dev 26(8):756-84, 2012. PMID: 22508724.
- Einbond LS, Soffritti M, Degli Esposti D, Tibaldi E, Lauriola M, Bua L, He K, Genovese G, Su T, Huggins L, Wang X, Roller M, Wu HA. Chemopreventive potential of black cohosh on breast cancer in Sprague-Dawley rats. Anticancer Res 32(1):21-30, 2012. PMID: 22213284.
- Coco C, Zannoni GF, Caredda E, Sioletic S, Boninsegna A, Migaldi M, Rizzo G, Bonetti LR, Genovese G, Stigliano E, Cittadini A, Sgambato A. Increased expression of CD133 and reduced dystroglycan expression are strong predictors of poor outcome in colon cancer patients. J Exp Clin Cancer Res 31:71, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22964035.
- Sgambato A, Camerini A, Genovese G, De Luca F, Viacava P, Migaldi M, Boninsegna A, Cecchi M, Sepich CA, Rossi G, Arena V, Cittadini A, Amoroso D. Loss of nuclear p27(kip1) and α-dystroglycan is a frequent event and is a strong predictor of poor outcome in renal cell carcinoma. Cancer Sci 101(9):2080-6, 2010. PMID: 20626751.
- Sgambato A, Puglisi MA, Errico F, Rafanelli F, Boninsegna A, Rettino A, Genovese G, Coco C, Gasbarrini A, Cittadini A. Post-translational modulation of CD133 expression during sodium butyrate-induced differentiation of HT29 human colon cancer cells: implications for its detection. J Cell Physiol, 2010. PMID: 20333645.
- Rettino A, Rafanelli F, Genovese G, Goracci M, Cifarelli RA, Cittadini A, Sgambato A. Identification of Sp1 and GC-boxes as transcriptional regulators of mouse Dag1 gene promoter. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 297(5):C1113-23, 2009. e-Pub 2009. PMID: 19657058.
- Einbond LS, Shimizu M, Ma H, Wu HA, Goldsberry S, Sicular S, Panjikaran M, Genovese G, Cruz E. Actein inhibits the Na+-K+-ATPase and enhances the growth inhibitory effect of digitoxin on human breast cancer cells. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 375(4):608-13, 2008. e-Pub 2008. PMID: 18755149.
- Sgambato A, Camerini A, Amoroso D, Genovese G, De Luca F, Cecchi M, Migaldi M, Rettino A, Valsuani C, Tartarelli G, Donati S, Siclari O, Rossi G, Cittadini A. Expression of dystroglycan correlates with tumor grade and predicts survival in renal cell carcinoma. Cancer Biol Ther 6(12):1840-6, 2007. e-Pub 2007. PMID: 18087214.
Grant & Contract Support
| Title: | Therapeutic vulnerabilities of mesenchymal pancreatic cancer cells |
| Funding Source: | Pancreatic Cancer Action Network |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | Identification of critical dependencies and actionable therapeutic options in Smarcb1- deficient pediatric tumors |
| Funding Source: | Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | Mesenchymal reprogramming in pancreatic cancer cells |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | Initiative for Genetically Engineered Mouse Models (GEMM) in Genitourinary Cancers |
| Funding Source: | MD Anderson's Prostate Cancer Research Program |
| Role: | Co-Principal Investigator |
| Title: | A Novel Mechanism of Pathogenesis for Renal Medullary Carcinoma |
| Funding Source: | DOD KCRP Concept Award |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | Cell Plasticity and Mesenchymal Reprogramming in Kidney Cancer Progression |
| Funding Source: | American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Next-Generation Targeting of Chromatin Remodeler Defects in Renal Cell Carcinoma |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | Clonal drivers of resistance to immune checkpoint blockade in Renal Cell Carcinoma |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Effective Combination Therapy for MTAP-Deficient Bladder Carcinoma by Targeting Metabolic Vulnerability and modulating Tumor Immune Microenvironment |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Co-Investigator |
| Title: | Macrophages as modulators of T cell function and therapeutic response in clear cell renal cell carcinoma |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Co-Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Investigation of the Role of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Plasticity in Pancreatic Cancer Evolution |
| Funding Source: | The Andrew Sabin Family Foundation |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Targeting resistance mechanisms in SMARCB1-deficient tumors |
| Funding Source: | Department of Defense (DOD) |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | Overcoming Primary Resistance to Immune Checkpoint Therapy in 9p21-Loss Cancer |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Co-Principal Investigator |