Irene Di Ceglie graduated in Medical Biotechnology at Milano-Bicocca University in 2012. In 2013 she joined the team of dr. P. van Lent at Experimental Rheumatology Department at Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) as a fellow of the European Marie Curie Initial Training Network Osteoimmune and obtained a PhD in Medical Sciences from Radboud University in 2020. After a first post-doctoral research experience at Radboud University focused on molecular imaging to monitor rheumatic diseases, since January 2022 Irene is enrolled in the High Profile Postdoctoral Program at the Humanitas Research Hospital working in the teams of Prof. Cecilia Garlanda and Prof. Sebastien Jaillon.

Her current research is focused on double negative alfa beta T cells (DNTαβ), a population of unconventional T cells, expressing an alpha-beta TCR but negative for CD4 and CD8 and distinct from other well-described unconventional T cells (invariant natural killer T cells and mucosal-associated invariant T cells). Already shown to be involved in resistance against murine sarcoma, DNTαβ could represent a potential new target for cancer therapy but are still poorly defined. Making use of pre-clinical models, analysis of patient samples and bioinformatic approaches Irene aims to dissect the ontogeny, biology and immunobiology of DNTαβ in steady state and cancer. Besides this, Irene collaborates to other research projects investigating the heterogeneity and function of neutrophils in cancer.