Maximiliano Gutierrez, PhD, is a programme leader at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, United Kingdom. He studied biochemistry and molecular biology in Argentina, and after graduation he started research in the field of autophagy and intracellular pathogens in Argentina, the United States and Germany. After completing his doctorate in 2005, he spent three years as a postdoctoral scientist at EMBL, in Heidelberg, Germany as a fellow of the von Humboldt foundation and EMBO. In 2008, he established his independent research group at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig, Germany. He has co-authored more than 25 publications contributing substantially to the understanding of the intracellular mechanisms of immune defences. Dr. Gutierrez’s primary research interest is the molecular mechanisms of the innate immune response with a particular focus on phagocytosis and tuberculosis.