Dr Abdou Hachani has completed his PhD in molecular microbiology and bacterial pathogenesis at Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He continued his training in bacterial pathogenesis and host-pathogen interactions, first at CNRS in Marseille, France, then at Imperial College London. His work has been recognised and supported by numerous competitive grants and international fellowships. He has been the recipient of the Lavoisier Fellowship (French Foreign Affairs Office) and the Marie-Sklodowska Curie Global Fellowship (EU) to continue his research on bacterial secretion systems in gram-negative pathogens, between the Doherty Institute and the LSHTM (London, UK). He is currently investigating the mechanisms leading to intracellular persistence of Staphylococcus aureus in human cells at the University of Melbourne (Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity).