May 11, 2007                                                        

SIU Medical Student Receives National Research Fellowship

Holly Hoefgen, a third-year medical student at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, has been awarded the 2007 Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship.  She is one of approximately 50 medical students nationally who is receiving the award.  This is the twelfth Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) national fellowship awarded to an SIU medical student since 1994.

The $4,500 fellowship is to support Hoefgen’s research project, which will explore how stem cells from bone marrow and umbilical cord blood migrate to and invade ovarian cancer tumors.  The goal of the study is to examine the use of genetically engineered stem cells for delivery of anti-cancer drugs to areas within the tumor that are difficult to reach with the treatments currently being used.

Hoefgen is doing her research under the supervision of Mary McAsey, Ph.D., assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at SIU and director of research for the department.  

Hoefgen is the daughter of Rita Hollingsworth and the late Stephen Hollingsworth of Martinsville.  She is married to Erik Hoefgen from St. Louis.  She has a bachelor’s degree in biology from SIUE in Edwardsville (2002).

AOA is the only national medical honor society in the world.  It recognizes and works to perpetuate excellence in the medical profession by promoting scholarship and research and by encouraging high standards of character and conduct among medical students and graduates.

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