Our Team

Ray Pajarillo, MS
Lab Manager
Email Ray Pajarillo, MS
215-573-8538

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Ray Pajarillo, MS
Lab Manager
Ray.Pajarillo@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
215-573-8538

Ray joined the Ruella lab in January 2019. He received a B.S degree in Biology from University of Wisconsin- Parkside and a M.S in Immunology at Drexel University College of Medicine. His primary roles in the lab is to oversee all lab operations and act as the liaison for biological specimens between researchers and clinicians for the Lymphoma Program. Outside of lab, you can find him training for a powerlifting competition, capturing Philly through a lens, and cruising on his electric longboard.
Patrizia Porazzi, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
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Patrizia Porazzi, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
patrizia.porazzi@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Patrizia joined the lab in October 2021. She is a passionate cancer biology scientist, and she loves, even more, mentoring the next generation of scientists. Patrizia obtained her PhD in Medical Biotechnologies and Translational Medicine from the University of Milan (Italy). She moved to the United States for her post-doctoral training at Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia). During that time, she studied the role of chromatin structure and epigenetic modification in response to chemotherapy in acute myeloid and lymphoid leukemias. As a senior scientist in Ruella’s lab, Patrizia is studying how the epigenetic landscape of lymphomas may affect the efficacy of CAR T cells or cause resistance. In addition, Patrizia is working collaboratively with the personnel in the laboratory in the execution of experiments, and she works with the Principal Investigator on scientific projects development. Out of the lab, she loves running and hiking with her dog and organizing cultural and social events relevant to her Italian heritage.
Rebecca Yelton
Research Administrative Assistant
Email Rebecca Yelton
215-573-8538

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Rebecca Yelton
Research Administrative Assistant
rbccyltn@upenn.edu
215-573-8538

Rebecca joined the lab in the Fall of 2019 as a research administrative assistant. Before joining the Penn team, Rebecca worked at Hahneman University Hospital as an administrative assistant for the Hematology & Oncology outpatient clinic. Rebecca graduated from Temple University with a BA in Linguistics. When Rebecca is not supplying administrative support to the lab, she enjoys crochet, researching dialects, and listening to horror podcasts.
Linhui Chen, MS
Bioinformatician

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Linhui Chen, MS
Bioinformatician

Linhui Chen is a bioinformatician at Institute for Biomedical Informatics, the Bioinformatic Core. She graduated from Northeastern University with the master’s degree in bioinformatics. Before joining the lab, she also did internship at MGH and the biotech company. In her free time, she enjoys boxing and playing the guitar.
Ivan Cohen, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

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Ivan Cohen, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Ivan is a post-doctoral research assistant who joined the lab in January 2021. He received his PhD from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he studied the links between glucose metabolism and immune suppression in solid tumors. During his PhD and post-doctoral training, Ivan has been interested in understanding various mechanisms of immune evasion to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy. In the Ruella lab, he hopes to develop novel ways of treating various hematologic malignancies. In his spare time, Ivan likes to watch and play soccer.
Alberto Carturan, MD
Postdoctoral Fellow

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Alberto Carturan, MD
Postdoctoral Fellow

I’m Alberto Carturan, and I graduated from University of Ferrara, Italy in 2017, and graduated from a residency program in Hematology at the AOU – Ospedali Riuniti di Ancona, Italy in 2022 . Recently, the onco-hematological world has begun to fascinate me and I have developed a particular interest in everything related to immunotherapy. During my training, knowing the stories and illnesses of many people has cemented my desire to continue in this area and to learn everything possible in order to be useful in treating hematological diseases. Thanks to clinical studies and the research projects and carried out in Italy, I have developed a growing interest in adoptive cell-therapy and in its enormous potential in the therapy of lymphoproliferative diseases. This led me to join the Ruella Lab, in order to study the mechanisms of relapse after therapy with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells and with the certainty of being able to exponentially increase my scientific knowledge in Immunotherapy. In my spare time, I like to watch TV-series, workout and spend time with my family.
Luca Paruzzo, MD
Postdoctoral Fellow

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Luca Paruzzo, MD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Luca is an Italian Oncologist. He graduated from his program at the University of Turin in 2023. During his Fellowship he worked mainly with cellular therapies (both in solid and hematological tumors) and hematopoetic stem cell transplantation. To further improve his knowledge, in the cellular therapies field, Luca joined the Ruella Lab to discover new strategies to improve the efficacy of chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapies. In his free-time he loves playing soccer, walking in the nature and cuddle his loving foster cat.
Puneeth Guruprasad, PhD
Research Specialist

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Puneeth Guruprasad, PhD
Research Specialist

Puneeth is a 1st year Bioengineering graduate student, and a native of Pennsylvania from North Wales. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech ('19), where he worked in the microfluidics lab of Dr. Wilbur Lam on red blood cell mechanics. In his spare time, Puneeth enjoys playing violin, rock climbing, and attempting to DJ.
Audrey Bochi-Layec
PhD Candidate

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Audrey Bochi-Layec
PhD Candidate

Audrey is a PhD student in the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Group (Gene Therapy and Vaccines Program). She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2022 with a BA in Biology where she worked on studying the role of EpCAM mutations on epithelial cancers in Dr. William Gillanders' lab. As part of the Ruella lab, she now hopes to develop novel CAR Ts for hematological malignancies as well as for other diseases. In her spare time, Audrey likes to box, take care of her house plants, and explore Philly.
Melody Tan
PhD Candidate

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Melody Tan
PhD Candidate

Melody is a PhD student in the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Group (Gene Therapy and Vaccines Program). After graduating from MIT in 2020 with a BS in Biological Engineering, she worked for two years in the Eric Smith Lab at Dana Farber Cancer Institute working on novel CAR T cell therapies for multiple myeloma. At Penn, she hopes to study the field of T cell epigenetics and its application to T cell engineering with a joint mentorship between the Ruella Lab and the Wherry Lab. When not in lab, Melody enjoys swing dancing, volleyball, and trying new restaurants.
Ziyu Li
Graduate Student

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Ziyu Li
Graduate Student

Ziyu Li is a BE master's student at Penn. He graduated from Emory and Georgia Tech's Biology and Biomedical Engineering Dual Degree program. His current research goal is to improve patients' response to CART therapies under Dr. Paruzzo and Dr. Ruella's supervision. Before joining Dr. Ruella's lab, he conducted research on insect mating behaviors. In his free time, he loves cooking and watching Amine.
Siena Nason
Undergraduate Student

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Siena Nason
Undergraduate Student

Siena is undergraduate freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, pursuing a B.A. in Biology with a concentration in mechanism of disease and double minoring in BBB and Health Services Management and Chemistry. In the lab, Siena is interested in researching and improving CART cell therapy specifically targeting B-cell lymphomas. Before joining the Ruella Lab, she researched angiogenesis and specific genes that influenced BMP signaling at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. In her free time, she enjoys baking, reading, and exploring Philadelphia.
Pedram Bayat
Undergraduate Student

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Pedram Bayat
Undergraduate Student

Pedram is an undergraduate student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, where he is pursuing a B.S.E. in Bioengineering. In the lab, Pedram works on enhancing the specificity of CAR-T cell therapies against B-cell lymphomas to prevent long-term immunosuppression and antigen negative relapse. Before joining the Ruella Lab, he researched small molecule binding to mitotic chromosomes as potential cancer growth inhibitors at Stanford University. He's also interested in machine learning and medical technologies. Outside of the lab, he enjoys playing tennis, watching Formula 1, and playing the piano.
Eugenio Fardella
Visiting Scholar

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Eugenio Fardella
Visiting Scholar

I am a medical specialist in hematology, and my research focuses on the determinants of response or resistance to CAR T-cell therapy in B-cell lymphoma patients. In the past year, I have been focusing on next-generation sequencing of T-cell lymphomas using liquid biopsy. The purpose of my project is to use liquid biopsy in lymphoma patients treated with CAR T-cell therapy to identify genetic mechanisms of treatment resistance and delineate features that allow CAR T-cell therapy to work or fail in a given context of lymphoma genetics.
Jean Lemoine, MD
Visiting Scholar

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Jean Lemoine, MD
Visiting Scholar

Jean is currently in a residency program in Hematology at the Université Paris Cité – AP-HP, Paris, France. His main research focuses are immunotherapies for the treatment of lymphoma which led him join the Ruella lab. The purpose of his project is to study the suboptimal adhesion between CAR T-cells and target tumor cells which could promote resistance to CAR T-cell therapy. In the future, this could lead to strategies to improve the efficacy of this promising therapy.