Gianni Cesareni is a Full Professor of Genetics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy). After obtaining a degree in physics at the University of Rome La Sapienza he spent three years in Cambridge in the laboratory of Sidney Brenner where he developed his interest in biological problems. He then moved to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg where for nine years he led a group working on the mechanisms controlling plasmid DNA replication. Since 1989 he teaches and works in Rome. He has been interested in the interplay between specificity and promiscuity in the protein interaction network mediated by protein recognition modules. Over the past couple of years a large fraction of the group has focused on a project aimed at understanding the process of muscle regeneration from a systems perspective. He is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. He is a recipient of an ERC advanced grant