Monica received her doctor degree in Cellular and Molecular biology with honors (Open University, London UK) in 2012. During these years, she has developed an extensive knowledge and experience on T-cell gene therapy for cancer treatment, in particular on therapeutic approaches based on T cells modified with chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) for the treatment of hematological malignancies. She has been crucial for the development of the CD44v6 CAR, which has proven to be extremely effective in animal models and it’s now on its way to clinical trial. During her PhD she spent a period in the laboratory of Malcolm Brenner (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, US) to learn about this innovative T-cell gene therapy directly in the US, where the research in the CAR field was more active. She is funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and she is a member of several international consortia on CAR-T cells sponsored by the European Union (H2020: CARAT, EURE-CART, CARAMBA) aimed at promoting the bench-to-bedside translation of CAR-T cell therapies in Europe. She is widely recognized as an expert in the field and she is coauthor of two relevant patent in the field of chimeric antigen receptors. She has recently taken the lead of the Innovative immunotherapies Unit under the Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Diseases Division.