Dr Ioly Kotta-Loizou holds a BSc in Biology, a MSc in Bioinformatics and a PhD in Molecular Microbiology from the University of Athens, Greece. Ioly is currently a researcher in the Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, UK, and holds honorary/visiting positions at the University of Hertfordshire and the University of Manchester, UK, and the California Institute for Medical Research, USA. Ioly has a keen interest in microorganisms and her studies focus on microbial life cycles and pathogenicity, together with potential applications in medicine and agriculture. She explores how double-stranded RNA viruses found in pathogenic fungi targeting humans, plants or insects can potentially be used in biological control. Ioly is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, an Editor for the scientific journals Archives of Virology, Viruses, Pathogens, Microorganisms and Frontiers, and a Chair in the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.