Kathlyn Laval, Ph.D. graduated in Fundamental Virology at Pasteur Institute, Paris. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Veterinary Science at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Belgium. In 2016, Dr. Laval joined the lab of Lynn W. Enquist as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University, USA. In 2021, she was selected for a Special Research Fund ‘Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds’ (BOF-ZAP) position and appointed as an associate professor in neurovirology at the Faculty of Veterinary, Ghent University, Belgium. Prof. Dr. Laval has performed several international research stays in top virology labs, including at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland (Ari Helenius Lab) and at the Imperial College London, UK (Geoffrey L. Smith lab). She is a member of the Belgian Society for Virology (BELVIR) and scientific expert of the Fund of Scientific Research (FNRS) panel. In 2021, Prof. Laval was awarded a starting grant from the Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek (SAO) to support her work on the role of HSV1 infection in the early pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease.