Dalerba Lab
Piero Dalerba, M.D., is an associate member of the Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI), a Professor of Medical Sciences at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine (HMSOM) and a research member of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC) of Georgetown University.
Dr. Dalerba and his team focus on the discovery of biomarkers that are predictive of tumor response to anti-neoplastic drugs, in order to improve therapeutic guidelines and decision-making algorithms for cancer patients. Dr. Dalerba's team uses single-cell technologies (e.g., FACS, single-cell RNA-sequencing) to deconvolute the cell composition of malignant tissues and identify anti-tumor drugs that have selective activity against specific subtypes of cancer cells.
Dr. Dalerba brought his research to the CDI in 2024. His prior appointments were as Assistant Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University, and as Instructor of Medicine at Stanford University. He earned his medical degree (MD) from the University of Milan (Italy) in 1995, and has received a series of distinctions over his career including: the 9th International PBI Valentina Lana Prize in Molecular Immunology (2002), a BD Biosciences Stem Cell Research Grant (2011), a National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Young Investigator Award (2012), a Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation (2016), a Schaefer Research Scholarship from Columbia University (2017), a Breast Cancer Alliance (BCA) Young Investigator Grant (2018), a Kara Gelb Memorial Grant (2018) from the Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation (ACCRF), a VELOCITY Fellow Grant Award from the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) of Columbia University (2019), and a Columbia Stem Cell Initiative (CSCI) Seed Fund Award (2022), among other awards and grants."
Selected Publications
Piero Dalerba, Scott J Dylla, In-Kyung Park et al., Phenotypic characterization of human colorectal cancer stem cells. PNAS. 2007 Jun 12;104(24):10158-10163. Pubmed link.
Piero Dalerba, Tomer Kalisky, Debashis Sahoo et al., Single-cell dissection of transcriptional heterogeneity in human colon tumors. Nature Biotechnology. 2011 Nov 13;29(12):1120-1127. Pubmed link.
Piero Dalerba, Debashis Sahoo, Soonmyung Paik et al., CDX2 as a prognostic biomarker in Stage II and Stage III colon cancer. New England Journal of Medicine. 2016 Jan 21;374(3):211-222. Pubmed link.
William J Raab, Arabella Mazzocchi, Paolo Radice et al., A microsatellite in the coding sequence of HLA-A/B is a mutation hotspot in colon cancer with microsatellite instability. Gastroenterology. 2022 Mar;162(3):960-963.e3. Pubmed link.
Sara Viragova, Luis Aparicio, Pierangela Palmerini et al., Inverse agonists of RAR/RXR signaling as lineage-specific antitumor agents against human adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC). Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2023 Jul 6;115(7):838-852. Pubmed link.
Reviews and Editorials
Piero Dalerba, Cristina Maccalli, Chiara Casati, Chiara Castelli, Giorgio Parmiani. Immunology and immunotherapy of colorectal cancer. Crit. Rev. Oncol. Hematol. 2003 Apr;46(1):33-57. PubMed link
Piero Dalerba, Robert W. Cho, Michael F. Clarke. Cancer stem cells: models and concepts. Annu. Rev. Medicine. 2007:58:267-284. PubMed link
Piero Dalerba, Michael F. Clarke. Cancer stem cells and tumor metastasis: first steps into uncharted territory. Cell Stem Cell. 2007 Sep 13;1(3):241-242. PubMed link
Piero Dalerba, Michael F. Clarke. Oncogenic miRNAs and the perils of losing control of a stem cell's epigenetic identity. Cell Stem Cell. 2013 Jul 3;13(1):5-6. PubMed link
Piero Dalerba. The dynamic identity of intestinal cancer stem cells. Cell Stem Cell. 2017 Jun 1;20(6):743-745. PubMed link
Piero Dalerba. Estimating the economic value of CDX2 as a predictive biomarker to guide treatment decisions in Stage II colon cancer. Value in Health. 2022 Mar;25(3):382-384. PubMed link
For a complete list of publications, please visit PubMed.gov