IU med student earns national research fellowship award

By Joe Stuteville

Sieck, a third-year student at the IU School of Medicine (IUSM), recently received a continuing fellowship award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute(HHMI)-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Scholars program. This nationwide program allows medical students who have completed either their second or third year of schooling to work with scientists at the NIH laboratories in Bethesda, Md.

Only 42 medical students from the nation’s 127 medical schools are selected annually for the program.

Last year, Sieck worked on a project studying the effects of a drug designed to arrest the growth of cervical cancer cells. The work was conducted in the lab of principal investigator Dr. David Gius.

Upon her return to IUSM, she applied for a continuing fellowship and recently learned she was granted a $37,000 award. The fellowship will pay for her tuition, living expenses and books for her third year of medical school and is renewable for the fourth and final year.

“I’m surprised and grateful for this award,” said Sieck, who is married and the mother of a two-year-old daughter, “Right now, there is a very low number of M.D.s who conduct biomedical research and this program gives students an excellent opportunity to gain experience in that area.” She plans to specialize in radiation, radiation oncology or ophthalmology following graduation, and a research fellowship following her assigned residency. Students in good standing at U.S. medical and dental schools are eligible to apply to the HHMI-NIH Research Scholars program. Those selected spend nine months to a year on the NIH campus, conducting basic research under the direct mentorship of senior NIH research scientists.

The HHMI provides the administration and funding for the program, including the salaries and benefits for the research scholars. The NIH provides advisers, mentors, laboratory space and equipment and supplies for laboratory work.