Wolfgang Preiser is Professor and Head of the Division of Medical Virology at Stellenbosch University in Tygerberg, Cape Town. In addition to teaching and research the department comprises a large routine diagnostic laboratory as part of South Africa's National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS). Preiser specialized in the field of medical virology in his hometown Frankfurt (Germany) and at University College London (UK).
His main research interests include the following three major topics:
- Improving and advancing diagnostic virology (especially, but not exclusively, HIV infection and antiretroviral drug resistance)
- the epidemiology, diagnosis, and surveillance of opportunistic viral infections (especially hepatitis B and cytomegalovirus in immunocompromised patients)
- emerging and potentially zoonotic viral diseases
Wolfgang Preiser was a member of the German group that was one of the first in the world to identify the novel coronavirus that caused the SARS outbreak in 2003. He subsequently served as a consultant to the WHO in China.
Among other things, he has worked on the identification of the hepatitis E virus as a major health problem in South Africa, as well as the study of its epidemiological patterns. Furthermore, Wolfgang Preiser investigated virus types in small mammals (rodents, shrews and bats) from Southern Africa, identifying several new corona-, paramyxo- and astroviruses.
His three months' stay at HIOH is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through their program "Research Stays for University Academics and Scientists".
We warmly welcome Prof. Wolfgang Preiser to Greifswald and look forward to working with him!