Marco Colonna

Marco Colonna, MD, trained in internal medicine at the University of Parma, Italy, and is now a Full Professor and Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute, where he joined in 2026 following 25 years at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. A leading and highly cited immunologist with over 30 years of research experience, he has made foundational contributions to the understanding of innate immunity, including the discovery of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), plasmacytoid dendritic cells, the TREM receptor family, and leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptors (LILRs). He is the senior author of more than 150 original research articles and over 120 reviews and commentaries, and his work has been cited more than 140,000 times. His current research spans mucosal immunology, cancer immunology, and neurodegeneration. An elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is widely recognized as one of the most influential immunologists of his generation, with discoveries that have shaped multiple areas of modern biomedical research.