Efstathios (Stathis) Giotis graduated from the School of veterinary medicine (Aristotle University, Greece) in 2001, received his MSc in biotechnology in 2002 and PhD in molecular microbiology in 2006 from the Ulster and Illinois State Universities. Since 2009, he worked at the Roslin Institute, the Royal Veterinary College London, the University of Copenhagen in the field of pathogen-host interactions. Common denominators of his research have been the focus on the interface of human-animal health and the use of transcriptomics technologies to answer scientific questions. Since joining Imperial College London in 2012, his research has moved to focus on the host cell-entry and transmission of zoonotic avian and bat-borne viruses such as avian/bat influenza A viruses, using big data techniques and bioinformatics. He joined the University of Essex in 2020 in order to establish his own group with a primary focus on SARS-CoV-2. He remains affiliated with Imperial College London as an honorary senior research fellow.