Biography

Professor Wolfgang Preiser heads the Division of Medical Virology at the University of Stellenbosch in Tygerberg, Cape Town. This includes an academic section devoted to research and training as well as a large accredited diagnostic section under the South African National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS).

Having graduated as a medical doctor, Preiser specialised in medical virology in his hometown of Frankfurt, Germany, and at University College London.

His research interests cover three broad themes: improving and advancing diagnostic virology; the epidemiology, diagnosis, and monitoring of opportunistic viral infections; and emerging and potentially zoonotic viral diseases.

During the SARS outbreak in 2003, he contributed to isolating and characterising the causative novel coronavirus. Later, his research group in Tygerberg identified a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus in South African bats and defined zoonotic hepatitis E virus infection as a significant health issue in South Africa. As a member of the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa, Virology Stellenbosch played an important role during the COVID-19 pandemic. He collaborates on several international research projects on emerging zoonotic infectious diseases such as mpox and Bundibugyo.