Irene Gallina is an Italian molecular biologist. After obtaining her master’s degree at the University of Padua, she moved to Denmark, where she spent most of her career specializing in the study of the mechanisms that preserve genome integrity. She obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Copenhagen, implementing high-throughput genetic and fluorescence microscopy techniques to identify novel proteins involved in the repair of DNA breaks in budding yeast. After a short postdoc at the Department of Biology studying repair mechanisms during mitosis, she joined the newly established group of Associate Professor Julein Duxin at the Novo Nordisk Foundantion Center for Protein Research. Here, she mastered in vitro Xenopus laevis egg extract model system, to study the mechanisms of DNA replication and repair. Taking advantage of this system, and in close collaboration with experts in proteomics and deep genome sequencing, she identified a protein that is an essential regulator of multiple DNA repair pathways, and a possible target for cancer therapy. In the end of 2021, Irene joined the group of Professor Sara Richter at the Department of Molecular Medicine. During her MSCA fellowship at the University of Padua, she will combine her knowledge of the mechanisms of DNA replication and repair with the expertise of the host laboratory in DNA secondary structures and virology, to investigate how some oncogenic viruses can replicate their genome in the host cells and how we could potentially target these processes to prevent cancer formation.