Marco Colonna is Professor of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He received his M.D. from the University of Parma, completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, and was a scientific member of the Basel Institute for Immunology. Marco Colonna’s research focuses on innate immune recognition and immunoreceptor signaling. His early work established plasmacytoid dendritic cells as the principal source of type I interferons in antiviral immunity, following the discovery of key inhibitory and activating receptor families, including LILRs and TREMs. His recent research has elucidated the role of TREM2 in neurodegeneration and cancer, and has defined the development and function of innate lymphoid cells and RORγt⁺ dendritic cells in mucosal immunity and immune tolerance.