Dr. Petros Kountouris is an Assistant Professor and a Scientist at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics in the Molecular Genetics Thalassaemia Department.  He obtained a BSc in Computer Engineering and Informatics from the University of Patras, Greece, and a PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of Nottingham, UK. His research interests lie in the fields of computational biology, medical informatics, machine learning, and molecular biology. He is coordinating several European and international networks focused on hemoglobinopathies, including the HemaFAIR project, the International Hemoglobinopathy Research Network (INHERENT), the COST Action CA22119 Haemoglobinopathies in European Liaison of Medicine and Science (HELIOS), the ClinGen Hemoglobinopathy Variant Curation Expert Panel, and the development of the ITHANET portal. He is also part of the team developing pan-European patient registries for rare hematological diseases, under the umbrella of ERN-EuroBloodNet.