Honors’ McInally Receives 2014 DAAD Scholarship to Germany to Research Influenza

There’s agro-tourism, eco-tourism, and leisure tourism—but what about, say, viral tourism?

That’s the kind on the mind of microbiology major Samantha McInally, a member of the WSU Honors College.

Thanks to a scholarship from the national German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Corvallis, Ore., native will spend the summer in Giessen, Germany, where she’s assigned to work with a Ph.D. student to research the flu virus at the University of Giessen. She will also do some traveling related to her passion for viruses.

She will leave for Giessen—about 42 miles north of Frankfurt—soon after her junior year concludes in May, and will return home in August.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” McInally said. “It’s only been a couple of weeks since I found out and I’ve been trying to get everything organized—I haven’t had a moment to sit down. And when I do, I’ll be in Germany.”

McInally’s trip, minus airfare, will be paid for by scholarships and grants, she said. That includes any fees and a stipend. For 2014 study at WSU, McInally received the Walter the Pauline Harris Award from the School of Molecular Biosciences, part of the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

The opportunity to research influenza with a graduate student is in line with her future goals. She plans to attend graduate school and study virology.

“The opportunity to work with influenza is insanely cool,” she said. “I think it’s one of the coolest viruses out there, and it has really amazing properties. This is an exciting chance to work in a hands-on way with the virus and infection process.”

She has worked in three different labs during her time at WSU.

“The more experience I have working with viruses, techniques, and in different lab environments, the better,” McInally said.

Although not fluent in German, McInally did study the language for four years at Corvallis High School. She learned about DAAD through WSU Honors College professor Rachel Halverson, who teaches a German film class. McInally visited Germany in high school but this will be her first trip on her own.

“It will be great to combine travel and research,” she said. Adding she is a little nervous about her language skills, she is optimistic. “I hope that being there and being surrounded by the language will bring it back.”

Not all of her time will be spent in the lab. McInally plans to see the country during her three months in Germany, and one nearby town will be high on her list: Marburg, just 18 miles north of Giessen. It is infamous for being the first documented location of the Marburg virus disease (MVD), which causes symptoms indistinguishable from Ebola virus disease. Of 31 people affected with MVD in 1967, seven died. All had had primary or secondary contact with tissue and cultures from infected grivets, African monkeys in a Marburg lab that focused on developing sera against tetanus and diphtheria.

“It’s so nerdy, but I’m excited to go and see where one of the first major Ebola-like outbreaks occurred,” McInally said. “It’s probably not the best tourism thing—‘Look, we have Ebola!’—but it will probably be one of my first stops.”