Let me introduce myself: my name is Lisanne Preusting and I am a new intern at Viruskenner.

This internship is the last part of my Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. I’ve always been very interested in infectious diseases. I believe it’s fascinating to learn about how different viruses, bacteria or parasites can cause human disease. During my previous internship I worked with the meningococcal bacterium in the laboratory. It was special to see how the smallest differences in the bacteria can lead to a very severe or less severe disease.

I believe it’s fantastic that I can now dive into the world of viruses. It seems very nice to be involved with the Viruskenner program in the upcoming period and I am very curious about the ideas that you come up with. During my internship at Viruskenner I will also investigate the coronavirus outbreak. The new coronavirus is in the news almost daily and the outbreak is getting bigger. In this study we will look at the attitude of children towards the coronavirus outbreak. At a few schools I will do interviews with a number of students and later there will probably be several schools taking part in a questionnaire. We are all very curious about the results of this research.