Wolfgang Preiser is a medical virologist who specialized in his home town Frankfurt, Germany, and at University College London. He received his second doctoral degree (Habilitation) in 2005 while working as consultant virologist in Frankfurt.
His principal research interests cover three broad themes: diagnosis of HIV infection and monitoring antiretroviral therapy, from antibody testing to resistance genotyping; the epidemiology, diagnosis, and monitoring of opportunistic viral infections, esp. hepatitis B and cytomegalovirus, in immunocompromised patients; and emerging and potentially zoonotic viral diseases. He served as a temporary advisor to the World Health Organization on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in China in 2003 and led the Frankfurt group who, together with colleagues from Hamburg, were among the first to isolate the SARS-associated coronavirus in spring 2003.
Since 2005 Wolfgang Preiser has been Professor and Head of the Division of Medical Virology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Stellenbosch / National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) Tygerberg.