Maria Rescigno has been appointed Scientific Director of CeMM as of November 2025. She emerged as the best candidate in a highly competitive selection process conducted by an international hiring committee. Maria Rescigno is Full Professor at Humanitas University, where she has been Vice Rector for Research as well as Deputy Scientific Director and Group Leader at Humanitas Research Hospital, in Milan, where she leads the Immunology Program and the Mucosal Immunology and Microbiota Lab.
Maria Rescigno graduated in Biology in 1990 at the University of Milan. From 1991 to 1994 she worked at the University of Cambridge, UK, in the Department of Biochemistry, as a visiting scholar. From 1995 to 1999, she worked at the National Research Council of Milan where she received her PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology in 1999. From 1999 to 2001 she worked at the University of Milano-Bicocca where she specialized in Applied Biotechnology. From 2001 to 2017 she was the Director of the Dendritic cell biology and immunotherapy Unit at the Department of Experimental Oncology at the European Institute of oncology. In 2008-2013 she was visiting professor at the University of Oslo. Her entrepreneurial strengths are evidenced by several patents, and in 2016 she founded Postbiotica a microbiota-based start-up.
Maria Rescigno authored more than 250 publications in high impact journals and her research has been funded by prestigious ERC grants. She was nominated EMBO Young Investigator in 2007, elected EMBO Member in 2011 and since 2019 she has been Member and from 2024 chair of the EMBO Council. Maria Rescigno has received several awards including the The Pezcoller-Marina Larcher Fogazzaro-EACR Women in Cancer Research Award and is member of the Italian Academy of Science (Accademia dei Lincei).
