Dr. Kathlyn Laval, a virologist from Pasteur Institute with a PhD in Veterinary Sciences from Ghent University, is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Enquist laboratory at the Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University. During her postdoctoral research, she developed an animal model to study alphaherpesvirus-induced neuroinflammation. She developed her own research project starting from the writing of several grants (Life Sciences Research Foundation, Multiple Sclerosis and spinal cord injury grants, ...), IACUC protocols and the design of the experiments to the publication of 4 major scientific papers. Her work is funded by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Within 7 years of reseach experience, she first-authored 8 publications and co-authored on another 11. As a long-term goal, she aims to continue her work on viral-induced neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative diseases, and ultimately to design innovative therapies.