Francesco Colucci trained as a doctor at the University of Bari (M.D. 1991) and learnt immunology at the University of Umeå (Ph.D. 1997). He studied natural killer (NK) cells during his post-doc at the Necker Hospital in Paris and became member of the Pasteur Institute in Paris (2000), group leader at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge (2004) and professor of immunology at the University of Cambridge (2010). His team continues to study how NK cells work in immunity and reproduction. He is fellow, director of studies in medicine and graduate admissions tutor at King's College, Cambridge, manager of the Cambridge Centre for Trophoblast Research, advisor of the Ceppellini School of Immunology in Naples and visiting professor at the University of Turin.