Workshop speaker

Lucia Pirisi-Creek

SC INBRE Program Coordinator


Dr. Lucia Pirisi-Creek is Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of South Carolina (USC) School of Medicine. She received her M.D. at the University of Sassari, Italy, in1983, and joined the NIH/NCI in 1985 as a Fogarty Visiting Scientist. She moved to USC in 1987 and became Assistant Professor of Pathology at the USC School of Medicine in1988.

Dr. Pirisi-Creek is the author or co-author of over 70 scientific publications and has mentored/co-mentored 25 Ph.D.s and numerous Master, and Undergraduate students in research. She co-directs with her husband and collaborator, Dr. Kim E. Creek, an active, extramurally-funded research program focusing on the basic mechanisms of HPV-mediated transformation and the origin of cervical cancer. More recently, she has expanded her area of interest to include HPV-mediated cancers of the head and neck. She contributed substantially to the launch of Project EXPORT, then CC SPHERE, a collaborative center grant between USC and Claflin University in support of basic research, Community-Based Participatory Research, education/training and community outreach to address health disparities in HIV and HPV-mediated diseases (Glover, Creek and Bullard-Dillard, PIs; funding from the NIH/NIMHD). Altogether, this center brought more than $13M to USC and Claflin University.

Pirisi-Creek is the Program Coordinator and former Program Director of SC INBRE, a $18.2M NIGMS program that provides support to over 20 faculty and hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students across the state to build research infrastructure at predominantly undergraduate institutions. Under her leadership as Director, SC INBRE’s competitive renewal was funded in 2010, and again in 2015, securing each time five additional years of support for the program and expanding the SC INBRE network to (now) 13 institutions, including two HBCUs.

Pirisi-Creek is also a founding member and the Secretary/Treasurer of the National Association of IDeA Principal Investigators (NAIPI), Charter Member and former Secretary/Treasurer of the International Papillomavirus Society, and Past President of the South Carolina Academy of Science. Among her interests outside of science are classical music (piano); writing; and dance (tap and contemporary). She is also a certified GYROKINESIS® Instructor and an avid student of physical disciplines that have the potential to improve/develop mind-body connections that promote health and contribute to healing.