Dr. Bashiardes is a staff scientist in the department of virology at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology. His research focuses on studying the molecular basis of host-microbiome interactions and their effects on health and disease, with a particular interest in neurological disorders. Dr. Bashiardes completed his BSc degree at the University of Leeds (UK). He received a PhD in genetics from the University of Leeds and continued to work in the field of genetics as a postdoctoral research associate at Washington University in St. Louis (Missouri, USA) in the Division of Human Genetics at Washington University Medical School. Dr. Bashiardes joined the department of immunology at the Weizmann Institute (Rehovot, Israel) as a visiting scientist where he worked in the field of microbiome research and was trained in the latest cutting-edge methods and applications for analyzing microbiomes and and their impact on host physiology.