I graduated from Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia, faculty of Biology with MSc degree of honor, specialization in Genetics in 1995. MSc thesis study I have done in collaboration with the Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology and Virology (Eliava IBMV). Title of M.Sc. thesis was: "Phage mediated transduction occurring among S. aureus strains".

Further I continued my professional career as a researcher in the Eliava IBMV. The Eliava Institute represents the world-known research center for bacteriophage therapy with 100 years of history. The Institute owns the world’s largest collection of therapeutic phages. In 2002 I obtained PhD in Biology at the Eliava IBMV in collaboration with the Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and the University of Oulu (Oulu, Finland). Title of Ph.D. thesis was: "Study of bacterial composition of Matsoni starters collected in the different regions of Georgia". During my PhD studies I twice gained George Soros ISSEP Ph.D. Student Award fellowship.

I did my postdoctoral studies at the University of Milan (UNIMI) (Milan, Italy) and the University of Ghent (UGent) (Ghent, Belgium) during 2002-2006 years.

During the period of 1995-2009 while working at the Eliava Institute I participated in up to 15 projects funded by different international funding sources.

Since 2009, I have been working as a senior scientist in the Laboratory for Molecular and Cellular Technology (LabMCT) of the Queen Astrid Military Hospital (QAMH) in Brussels and have been involved in several research projects associated with bacteriophage and bacteriophage therapy research. The projects have been funded by Royal Military Academy (Belgian defense).

Bacteriophages and phage therapy present main interests in my research. Starting from

Master thesis in the Eliava Institute till present I had chance to work  and I gained large knowledge and experience in isolation and characterization of bacteriophages active against wide variety of clinical pathogens, selection of potential therapeutic bacteriophages based on essential requirements, genetic characterization of bacteriophages, different production methods of bacteriophage therapeutics on small and large scales.

During my PhD study I worked on molecular characterization of probiotic strains isolated from Georgian traditional dairy products. Research topics of my postdoc studies in Milan University included development of molecular biology strategies for identification of Bacillus spp; molecular characterization and typing of Bacillus anthracis strains isolated in anthrax endemic regions of Georgia. The second postdoctoral studies performed with collaboration Ghent University included development of fRFLP as rapid identification and typing method of dsDNA bacteriophages.  

Since the start of my career in 2009 at LabMCT, Queen Astrid Military Hospital, together with Dr Pirnay and his team we were able to establish phage therapy research group and center. In 2018 our team was the initiator to introduce “magistral phage” framework in Belgium. This framework allowed us to treat about 190 patients until now, with 48 different phages, targeting 14 bacterial species (including all ESKAPE pathogens). Due to these efforts and results nowadays Belgium is considered as a pioneer country to re-introduce Bacteriophage Therapy into the modern medicine.