Maria Rescigno, PhD is a full professor of General Pathology and serves as Vice Scientific Director and deputy pro-rector in charge of research at Humanitas University in Milan. She is also a group leader at Humanitas Research Hospital, where she directs the Unit of Mucosal Immunology and Microbiota.

An immunologist and entrepreneur, she is one of the leading international experts on the Microbiota (the billions of microorganisms that live in symbiosis with our bodies). Her research focuses on the development of new cancer immunotherapy strategies based on the use of bacteria to stimulate an anti-tumour response. Her group has identified an intestinal bacterial strain that plays a protective role against colorectal cancer. In 2016, she founded Postbiotica, a startup exploiting bacteria-derived products as new drugs for inflammatory diseases.

She has been an elected member of EMBO since 2011. Her book for the general public Microbiota, a secret weapon of the immune system was published in 2021. 

In 2024, she received the “Women in Cancer” award from The Pezcoller Foundation and has been elected to the Academia dei Lincei, one of the oldest academies of science in Europe, founded in 1630.