Dr. Barbara Cassani graduated from the University of Milan in Pharmacy in 2001 and received her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan − Open University, London, in 2007. Supported by an EMBO Long-term Fellowship, she performed her postdoctoral studies at the Gastrointestinal Department, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA. By the end of 2012, Dr. Cassani moved back to Italy (Milan) where she started up her own group at the Institute of Genetic and Biomedical Research of the National Research Council (IRGB-CNR), hosted at the Humanitas Research Hospital, Milan. In 2016, she became a tenured scientist at the IRGB-CNR. Her group is interested in understanding the interactions between the immune system and different tissues during disease pathogenesis. She aims at deciphering the mechanisms underlying these interactions, from a systemic down to molecular level, and exploiting them to attempt novel therapeutic approaches. To accomplish these goals, she combines immunological studies in patients, relevant disease and infectious models, as well as state-of-the-art high-throughput technologies. Macro areas of interest: 1) Role of host-microbes interactions in the pathogenesis of primary immune deficiencies (PIDs) and autoimmunity; 2) Host-related immunological and microbiological factors associated to the development of bacteria infections; 3) Role of immune system in tumorigenesis and chemoresistance.