Irene Acerbi, Ph.D. is a biomedical engineer by training. After receving her B.sc. at the Polytechnic of Milano, Italy, she started her graduate training at Unit of Biophysics and Bioengineering (UBB) at the University of Barcelona, Spain, where she learned the nanotechniques of atomic force microscopy (AFM). Subsequently, Dr. Acerbi became a joint doctoral student with the UBB of the School of Medicine of the University of Barcelona and the Bioengineering Department at the Polytechnic University of Milano. After obtaining her Ph.D. in Bioengineering, she joined the Center for Bioengineering and Tissue Regeneration at University of California, San Francisco as a postdoctoral researcher in September 2010, and successfully applied the AFM technique on human breast tissue from prophylaxis mastectomy, pre-cancerous lesions, and invasive tumors. Dr. Acerbi's current research project is to identify high-risk populations for developing malignancy so that individuals can benefit from improved monitoring and treatment, sponsored by a three-year Post Doctoral Fellowship by Susan G. Komen Foundation.