Luigi Perelli, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Cancer Biology, Division of Discovery Science
About Dr. Luigi Perelli
Luigi Perelli is Assistant Professor of the Department of Cancer Biology and a CPRIT Scholar in cancer research. Dr. Perelli’s research program focuses on answering key unsolved questions of cancer biology, including malignant transformation of ‘normal’ cells and the interplay between genotype-phenotype in shaping cancer evolution. To date, his discoveries have been published in top-tier scientific journals like Nature, Nature Cancer, Cancer Cell. The goal of his research group is to intercept and eliminate cancer with preventive strategies. Current projects in the lab including malignant transformation in sporadic and syndromic kidney cancer, and evolutionary mechanisms in glioblastoma.
Dr. Perelli is a certified Italian Medical Doctor with a PhD in oncological sciences. His expertise bridge clinical practice with foundational knowledge of genetics and genomics. His team leverages cutting edge technologies to answer biological questions, including new tools for generating animal models of cancer, genome-tagging technologies coupled with multi-omic technologies. Dr. Perelli is a CPRIT First-Time Tenure-Track Awardee and his work is currently supported by the CPRIT, the NIH, and the Department of Defense.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Department of Cancer Biology, Division of Discovery Science, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2022 | Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, IT, PhD Oncological Sciences |
| 2018 | Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, IT, Medicine and Surgery |
Postgraduate Training
| 2024-2025 | Instructor, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas |
| 2022-2024 | Postgraduate Fellow, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas |
Experience & Service
Other Professional Positions
Associate Member, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
Honors & Awards
| 2025 - Present | CPRIT First-Time Tenure-Track Award, CPRIT |
| 2018 - 2019 | “Ermenegildo Zegna Founder’s Scholarship” |
| UT MD Anderson Nominee for the Early K99 Award, UT MD ANDERSON |
Grant & Contract Support
| Date: | 2025 - Present |
| Title: | Dissecting tissue-specific effects of VHL germline variants in von Hippel-Lindau syndrome |
| Funding Source: | Department of Defense |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | DoD PR240469 |
| Date: | 2019 - 2020 |
| Title: | Ermenegildo Zegna Founder’s Scholarship |
| Funding Source: | Ermenegildo Zegna |
| Role: | Key |
| Title: | Investigating somatic clonal evolution of kidney cancer predisposition syndromes |
| Funding Source: | CPRIT |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | RR250083 |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Lucchetti D, Colella F, d'Amati A, Servidei T, Gessi M, Chiara P, Cellini B, Toma F, Giaco L, Persiani F, Perelli L, Mantini G, Genovese G, Masetto I, Ruggiero A, Sgambato A. Spatial Analysis Identifies CD147 as a Novel Marker of High-Grade Childhood Posterior Fossa Ependymoma. Lab Invest 105(7):104175, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40250710.
- Perelli L, Zhang L, Mangiameli S, Giannese F, Mahadevan KK, Peng F, Citron F, Khan H, Le C, Gurreri E, Carbone F, Russell AJC, Soeung M, Lam TNA, Lundgren S, Marisetty S, Zhu C, Catania D, Mohamed AMT, Feng N, Augustine JJ, Sgambato A, Tortora G, Draetta GF, Tonon G, Futreal A, Giuliani V, Carugo A, Viale A, Kim MP, Heffernan TP, Wang L, Kalluri R, Cittaro D, Chen F, Genovese G. Evolutionary fingerprints of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Nature 640(8060):1083-1092, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40044861.
- Colella F, Calapa F, Artemi G, Pazzaglia E, Colonna R, Vitale S, Lazzarino G, Vincenzoni F, Fiori ME, De Maria R, Lucchisani S, Genovese G, Perelli L, Tavazzi B, Sgambato A, Lucchetti D. CD147 Mediates the Metabolic Reprogramming of Cancer Associated Fibroblasts Induced by EVs Released by Differentiating Cancer Stem Cells. J Extracell Biol 4(3):e70039, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40104175.
- Bezwada, D, Perelli, L, Lesner, NP, Cai, L, Brooks, B, Wu, Z, Vu, H, Sondhi, V, Cassidy, DL, Kasitinon, S, Kelekar, S, Cai, F, Aurora, A, Patrick, M, Leach, A, Ghandour, R, Zhang, Y, Do, D, McDaniel, P, Sudderth, JA, Dumesnil, D, House, S, Rosales, TI, Poole, AM, Lotan, Y, Woldu, SL, Bagrodia, A, Meng, X, Cadeddu, JA, Mishra, P, Garcia-Bermudez, J, Pedrosa, I, Kapur, P, Courtney, K, Malloy, C, Genovese, G, Margulis, V, Deberardinis, RJ. Mitochondrial complex I promotes kidney cancer metastasis. Nature 633(8031):923-931, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39143213.
Other Articles
- Perelli, L, Genovese, G, Draetta, G The KRAS mutational spectrum and its clinical implications in pancreatic cancer. Cancer cell 42(9):1494-1496, 2024. PMID: 39214093.
- Perelli L*#, Zhang L, Mangiameli S, Russell AJC, Giannese F, Peng F, Carbone F, Le C, Khan H, Citron F, Soeung M, Lam TNA, Lundgren S, Zhu C, Catania D, Feng N, Gurreri E, Sgambato A, Tortora G, Draetta GF, Tonon G, Futreal A, Giuliani V, Carugo A, Viale A, Heffernan TP, Wang L, Cittaro D, Chen F, Genovese G Evolutionary fingerprints of EMT in pancreatic cancers. Nature, 2023. PMID: 37786705.
- Perelli L*#, Carbone F, Zhang L, Huang JK, Le C, Khan H, Citron F, Del Poggetto E, Gutschner T, Tomihara H, Soeung M, Minelli R, Srinivasan S, Peoples M, Lam TNA, Lundgren S, Xia R, Zhu C, Mohamed AMT, Zhang J, Sircar K, Sgambato A, Gao J, Jonasch E, Draetta GF, Futreal A, Bakouny Z, Van Allen EM, Choueiri T, Signoretti S, Msaouel P, Litchfield K, Turajlic S, Wang L, Chen YB, Di Natale RG, Hakimi AA, Giuliani V, Heffernan TP, Viale A, Bristow CA, Tannir NM, Carugo A, Genovese G Interferon signaling promotes tolerance to chromosomal instability during metastatic evolution in renal cancer. Nat Cancer, 2023. PMID: 37365326.
- Gurreri E, Genovese G, Perelli L, Agostini A, Piro G, Carbone C, Tortora G KRAS-Dependency in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: Mechanisms of Escaping in Resistance to KRAS Inhibitors and Perspectives of Therapy. Int J Mol Sci, 2023. PMID: 37298264.
- Soeung M, Perelli L, Chen Z, Dondossola E, Ho IL, Carbone F, Zhang L, Khan H, Le CN, Zhu C, Peoples MD, Feng N, Jiang S, Zacharias NM, Minelli R, Shapiro DD, Deem AK, Gao S, Cheng EH, Lucchetti D, Walker CL, Carugo A, Giuliani V, Heffernan TP, Viale A, Tannir NM, Draetta GF, Msaouel P, Genovese G SMARCB1 regulates the hypoxic stress response in sickle cell trait. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2023. PMID: 37186844.
- Lucchetti, D, Santini, G, Perelli, L*, Ricciardi-Tenore, C, Colella, F, Mores, N, Macis, G, Bush, A, Sgambato, A, Montuschi, P Detection and characterisation of extracellular vesicles in exhaled breath condensate and sputum of COPD and severe asthma patients. European Respiratory Journal, 2021.
- Tomihara, H*, Carbone, F*, Perelli, L*, Huang, JK, Soeung, M, Rose, JL, Robinson, FS, Deribe, YL, Feng, N, Takeda, M, Inoue, A, Poggetto, ED, Deem, AK, Maitra, A, Msaouel, P, Tannir, NM, Draetta, GF, Viale, A, Heffernan, TP, Bristow, CA, Carugo, A, Genovese, G Loss of ARID1A Promotes Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition and Sensitizes Pancreatic Tumors to Proteotoxic Stress A C. Cancer Research, 2021.
- Shapiro, DD, Soeung, M, Perelli, L, Dondossola, E, Surasi, DS, Tripathi, DN, Bertocchio, J-P, Carbone, F, Starbuck, MW, Alstine V, ML, Rao, P, Katz, MHG, Parker, NH, Shah, AY, Carugo, A, Heffernan, TP, Schadler, KL, Logothetis, C, Walker, CL, Wood, CG, Karam, JA, Draetta, GF, Tannir, NM, Genovese, G, Msaouel, P Association of high-intensity exercise with renal medullary carcinoma in individuals with sickle cell trait: Clinical observations and experimental animal studies, 2021.
- Msaouel, P, Malouf, GG, Su, X, Yao, H, Tripathi, DN, Soeung, M, Gao, J, Rao, P, Coarfa, C, Creighton, CJ, Bertocchio, J-P, Kunnimalaiyaan, S, Multani, AS, Blando, J, He, R, Shapiro, DD, Perelli, L, Srinivasan, S, Carbone, F, Pilié, PG, Karki, M, Seervai, RNH, Vokshi, BH, Lopez-Terrada, D, Cheng, EH, Tang, X, Lu, W, Wistuba, II, Thompson, TC, Davidson, I, Giuliani, V, Schlacher, K, Carugo, A, Heffernan, TP, Sharma, P, Karam, JA, Wood, CG, Walker, CL, Genovese, G, Tannir, NM Comprehensive Molecular Characterization Identifies Distinct Genomic and Immune Hallmarks of Renal Medullary Carcinoma. Cancer Cell, 2020.
- Citron, F*, Perelli, L*, Deem, AK, Genovese, G, Viale, A Leukotrienes, a potential target for Covid-19. Prostaglandins Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids, 2020.
- Lucchetti, D, Perelli, L*, Colella, F, Ricciardi-Tenore, C, Scoarughi, GL, Barbato, G, Boninsegna, A, Maria D, R, Sgambato, A Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound affects growth, differentiation, migration, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition of colorectal cancer cells. Journal of Cellular Physiology, 2020.
- Lucchetti, D, Colella, F, Perelli, L, Ricciardi‐Tenore, C, Calapà, F, Fiori, ME, Carbone, F, Maria D, R, Sgambato, A CD147 promotes cell small extracellular vesicles release during colon cancer stem cells differentiation and triggers cellular changes in recipient cells. Cancers, 2020.
- Lucchetti, D, Battaglia, A, Ricciardi-Tenore, C, Colella, F, Perelli, L*, Maria, RD, Scambia, G, Sgambato, A, Fattorossi, A Measuring extracellular vesicles by conventional flow cytometry: Dream or reality?. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2020.
Letters to the Editor
- Lucchetti, D, Santini, G, Perelli, L, Ricciardi-Tenore, C, Colella, F, Mores, N, Macis, G, Bush, A, Sgambato, A, Montuschi, P. Detection and characterisation of extracellular vesicles in exhaled breath condensate and sputum of COPD and severe asthma patients. The European respiratory journal 58, 2021.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified July 15, 2025