Dr Bilal Djeghout, Molecular Microbiologist and Research Fellow in the Clinical Research Department at LSHTM — London, working on Clinical Trials and Molecular Diagnostics to advance treatment for Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS) — a parasitic disease affecting the female reproductive tract.

He holds a PhD in Microbiology (University of Sassari, Italy) and over six years of postdoctoral experience at Quadram Institute Bioscience (UK), studying bacterial (meta)genomics, pathogen transmission, and persistence.

He collaborated with the NHS regional Hospital in Norwich, UK, developing a metagenomic workflow for pathogen detection and genomic characterisation, and investigating Campylobacter bloodstream infections and gastrointestinal dysbiosis.

Previously, he was a Research Scientist on a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation–funded project (USA–UK–Bangladesh), using metagenomics to trace infectious disease transmission.

He also holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Microbiology and Molecular Biology of Prokaryotes from the University of Guelma (Algeria). During his Master's programme, he completed his thesis at the University of Rennes 1 (France), where he investigated cell cycle regulation.

Additionally, he completed an Erasmus+ Traineeship at the Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia (UK), where he worked on the genomic characterisation of non-typhoidal Salmonella isolates from a North African salmonellosis project — a collaborative effort between Algeria, Italy, and the UK.