UW SMPH Student Honored as NIH Medical Research Scholar

Madison, Wisconsin - Amanda Herzog, a third-year student at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, has been chosen as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Medical Research Scholar.

 
She joins 42 other students from 48 medical schools in the elite program. More than 200 medical students applied.

 
Herzog will take a year off medical school to do hands-on research under the mentorship of a senior investigator at the NIH's main campus in Bethesda, Maryland. She began the program July 21.

"I will be conducting immunology research, but my lab is yet to be determined," she says.

The Research Scholars are encouraged to spend the first several weeks in the program interviewing with investigators and exploring different laboratories before making a selection. The program aims to develop doctors who do basic research to improve human health.

 
Herzog will build on an already impressive research foundation. Since her days as a UW-Madison undergraduate, she has worked in four research laboratories. The research has ranged from studying immune cells' potential to remove irradiated tumors from melanoma patients to the effects of four neuropeptides on cow cartilage to pediatric tonsillectomy techniques to fruit fly behavior in response to attractive and repulsive stimuli.

"The HHMI-NIH Research Scholars Program is an unparalleled opportunity to work on the forefront of medical research," says Herzog.

She plans to do research in tumor biology once she graduates.