Prof. Dr. Dorothee von Laer was born in Hamburg in 1958. In 1985 she completed the medical studies at the University of Hamburg and completed her doctorate at the Institute of Biochemistry in Hamburg. Then she worked at various institutes as a research assistant. In 1994 she qualified as a specialist for Microbiology and Infection Epidemiology and habilitated at the University of Freiburg in 1996. In 2000, she was awarded a professorship for Applied Virology at the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University in Frankfurt. Since 2010, Prof. von Laer is the Head of the Institute of Virology at the Medical University of Innsbruck.

Prof.in von Laer founded two companies (Vision 7 GmbH and ViraTherapeutics) and has received numerous awards and prizes. She is member of many societies and scientific advisory boards. She also acts as a reviewer for various journals and third-party funders.