Carlo Croce is internationally renowned for his discoveries that cancer is a genetic disease and of the genes and molecular mechanisms involved in the development of leukemias, lymphomas and other cancers. In 2002 he discovered alterations in microRNA genes in human malignancies; he has since shown that microRNA dysregulation contributes to the development of all tumors, discoveries that have led to innovative treatments based on gene-target discovery. Educated in biochemistry and medicine at the University of Rome “La Sapienza,” he began his career at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia; he also held appointments at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and later as director of the cancer research centers at both Temple University and Thomas Jefferson University. He moved to Ohio State in 2004 and now directs research in cancer genetics. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Italian National Academy of Sciences, he has been presented copious honors in the U.S. and Europe and has published more than 1,000 research papers. He is also professor of medical oncology at the University of Ferrara School of Medicine in Italy.