Mariagrazia Uguccioni received the degree in Medicine from the University of Bologna (IT) where she specialized in Haematology in 1994. From 1993 to 2000 she was a member of the Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern (CH), since 2000 she is group leader at the IRB and vice-director since 2010. She is adjunct professor of Immunology at the School of Rheumatology, University of Bologna (IT) since 2000, and member of the Bologna Academy of Science since 2009. Mariagrazia Uguccioni’s research has covered aspects of human haematology and immunology: chemokine expression and activities in normal and pathological conditions, leukocyte activation and traffic, natural chemokine antagonists and synergy-inducing chemokines. Recently, her group is focusing on chemokine activities in human autoimmune diseases, tumours, and infections and has identified a novel regulatory mechanism of leukocyte trafficking induced by synergy-inducing chemokines.