Samar Hegazy

For More Information

• Google Scholar Profile
• Illinois Experts
• Carle Illinois College of Medicine-Faculty Profile
• Carle Illinois College of Medicine-Faculty Medical Education Facilitators
• AAMC-Communities Blog-3 Minutes with Samar Hegazy
• Carle Illinois College of Medicine News-Carle Illinois-Led Team Advances Instruction on Women's Health Issues with federal funding
• Carle Illinois College of Medicine News- Discovery Learning: CI MED Students Explore Health Problems Around the Globe and in the Clinic
• Change Agents: CI MED Conference Builds Carle Illinois College of Medicine News- Innovative Partnerships to Revolutionize Medical Education

Education

• Master of Education in The Health Professions: School of Education, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, US, 2024
• Post Master's Certificate- Evidence-Based Teaching in Health Professions, School of Education, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, US, 2022
• Doctor of Philosophy in Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Canada, 2012
• Master of Science in Pathology, Zagazig University, Egypt, 2003
• Doctor of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt, 1997

Biography

Samar Hegazy is an MD and PhD pathologist. She completed her MD degree and Anatomical Pathology Residency training at Zagazig University, Egypt, and her PhD in Molecular Pathology (Laboratory Medicine and Pathology) from the University of Alberta, Canada. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in clinical cancer research to identify novel prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers for prostate cancer at the University of Calgary and Prostate Cancer Center, Canada. Dr. Hegazy completed and was conferred a Master of Education in Health Professions (MEHP) with leadership specialization from the Johns Hopkins School of Education. She is an Assistant Professor at Carle Illinois College of Medicine (CI MED)-UIUC, the Pathology and Histology Discipline Lead, the Lifespan Health Thread co-director, the respiratory course co-director, the director of the research elective course "Literature Reviews in Pathology." She is also the vice chair of the curriculum oversight committee and the chair of the curriculum evaluation subcommittee. Dr. Hegazy is the faculty advisor of the student pathology and Academic Medicine interest groups. She has been mentoring several medical students who are interested in academic pathology as a career.

Dr. Hegazy has extensive experience teaching pathology and conducting translational/clinical research (with a solid track record of peer-reviewed publications) at medical schools and research laboratories in North America and internationally https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Aczwz1gAAAAJ&hl=en. She continues to expand her research expertise to the field of medical education in the areas of instructional strategies and curriculum development to contribute to advancing evidence-based medicine and teaching. Dr. Hegazy continues to improve pathology education and understanding of pathologies related to female reproduction and Women's Health by developing open educational resources and 3D-printed pathological models supported by grant funds from the US Federal Department of Education https://medicine.illinois.edu/news/carle-illinois-led-team-advances-instruction-on-womens-health-issues-with-federal-funding. Currently, she is working on a quality improvement project to enhance simulation training by developing integrative clinical scenarios that leverage AI, VR, and XR technologies for immersive learning experiences. Dr. Hegazy is an active member of the Diversity Education in Pathology (DEP) group of the Association for Academic Pathology and the AAMC Central Group on Educational Affairs (CGEA)- Inclusion, Diversity, Anti-racism and Equity (I-DARE) particular interest group. She serves on several committees at CI MED (curriculum oversight committee, curriculum evaluation subcommittee, foundational science subcommittee, and the curricular threads subcommittee) and IAMSE (Faculty Development Committee, the onboarding task force, and the GRIPE resource bank editorial board). Dr. Hegazy is also a member of the AAMC curriculum and academic medicine communities. She aims to improve medical school curricula and the quality of training medical professionals receive to enhance their competencies for providing high-quality health care.

Academic Positions

• Teaching Assistant Professor, BMTS, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, UIUC, 2020-Current (100%)
• Co-Director-Life Span Health Curricular Thread, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, UIUC, 2022-Current
• Discipline Lead-Histology and Pathology, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, UIUC, 2024
• Respiratory Course Director, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, UIUC, 2024
• Faculty Affiliate, Informatics Programs, UIUC, 2023-Current (0%)

Professional Registrations

• Association of American Medical Colleges, US, 2023-Current
• United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP), US, 2021-current
• UMEDS Council Member-at-Large, Association for Academic Pathology (AAPath), formerly the Association of Pathology Chairs (APC), US, 2024-current
• Undergraduate Medical Educators Section (UMEDS), Association for Academic Pathology (AAPath), formerly the Association of Pathology Chairs (APC), US, 2021-current
• International Association of Medical Sciences Educators (IAMSE), US, 2020-current

Student Organizations

• Academic Medicine Interest Group, Carle Illinois College of Medicine-Faculty Advisor, 2023-Current
• Pathology Student Interest Group, Carle Illinois College of Medicine-Faculty Advisor, 2021-Current

Research Interests

• Medical Education Research 
• Tumor Biomarkers
• Cell Signalling/ Signalling Pathways
• Molecular Pathology
• Targeted Therapies
• Translational Research
• Clinical Research

Monographs

• Hegazy, S. (2003). Pathological significance of S phase fraction of fibrocystic disease of the breast: a retrospective study. Master's Thesis.
• Hegazy, S. (2012). The Role of Oncogenic Tyrosine Kinase NPM-ALK in Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma Pathobiology. PhD Thesis.

Selected Articles in Journals

• Mullany K, Masi B, Yodh J, Sheppard I, Park G, Hegazy SA. Linking the social determinants of health and disease process using concept mapping in pre-clerkship problem-based learning courses: a pilot study. Acad Pathol. 2025 (In Production)
• Park GL, Hegazy SA, Sepe J, Swigart J, Burnette M, Beltran J, Hernandez C. Fostering competencies: A scoping review of escape rooms in medical education. Med.Sci.Educ. (2025).
• Bismar TA, Hegazy S, Feng Z, Yu D, Donnelly B, Palanisamy N, Trock BJ. Clinical utility of assessing PTEN and ERG protein expression in prostate cancer patients: a proposed method for risk stratification. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 2018 Nov;144(11):2117-2125.
• Box A, Alshalalfa M, Hegazy SA, Donnelly B, Bismar TA. High alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) is associated with ERG expression and with adverse clinical outcome in patients with localized prostate cancer. Tumour Biol 2016;37(9):12287-99
• Almami A, Hegazy SA, Nabbi A, Alshalalfa M, Salman A, Abou-Ouf H, Riabowol K, Bismar TA. ING3 is associated with increased cell invasion and lethal outcome in ERG-negative prostate cancer patients. Tumour Biol 2016;37(7):9731.8
• Bakkar A, Alshalalfa M, Petersen LF, Abou-Ouf H, Al-Mami A, Hegazy SA, Feng F, Alhajj R, Bijian K, Alaoui-Jamali MA, Bismar TA. microRNA 338-3p exhibits tumor suppressor role and its down-regulation is associated with adverse clinical outcome in prostate cancer patients. Mol Biol Rep 2016;43(4):229-40
• Wang T, Abou-Ouf H, Hegazy SA, Alshalalfa M, Stoletov K, Lewis J, Donnelly B, Bismar TA. Ankyrin G expression is associated with androgen receptor stability, invasiveness, and lethal outcome in prostate cancer patients. J Mol Med 2016;94(12):1411-22
• Huang KC, Alshalalfa M, Hegazy SA, Dolph M, Donnelly B, Bismar TA. The prognostic significance of combined ERG and androgen receptor expression in patients with prostate cancer managed by androgen deprivation therapy. Cancer Biol Ther 2014;15(9):1120-8
• Al Bashir S, Alshalalfa M, Hegazy SA, Dolph M, Donnelly B, Bismar TA. Cysteine- rich secretory protein 3 (CRISP3), ERG and PTEN define a molecular subtype of prostate cancer with implication to patients' prognosis. J Hematol Oncol 2014;7:21
• Hegazy SA, Alshareef A, Gelebart P, Anand M, Armanious H, Ingham RJ, Lai R. Disheveled proteins promote cell growth and tumorigenicity in ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Cell Signal 2013;25(1):295-307
• Gelebart P*, Hegazy SA*, Wang P, Bone KM, Anand M, Sharon D, Hitt M, Pearson JD, Ingham RJ, Ma Y, Lai R. Aberrant expression, and biological significance of Sox2, an embryonic stem cell transcriptional factor, in ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Blood Cancer J 2012;2(8):e82 (*contributed equally to the work).
• Mereniuk TR, Maranchuk RA, Schindler A, Penner-Chea J, Freschauf GK, Hegazy S, Lai R, Foley E, Weinfeld M. Genetic screening for synthetic lethal partners of polynucleotide kinase/phosphatase: potential for targeting SHP-1-depleted cancers. Cancer Res 2012;72(22):5934-44
• Wang P, Zhang JD, Wu F, Ye X, Sharon D, Hitt M, McMullen TP, Hegazy SA, Gelebart P, Yang J, Ma Y, Lai R. The expression and oncogenic effects of the embryonic stem cell marker SALL4 in ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Cell Signal 2012;24(10):1955-63
• Young LC, Bone KM, Wang P, Wu F, Adam BA, Hegazy S, Gelebart P, Holovati J, Li L, Andrew SE, Lai R. Fusion tyrosine kinase NPM-ALK Deregulates MSH2 and suppresses DNA mismatch repair function novel insights into a potent oncoprotein. Am J Pathol 2011;179(1):411-21
• Hegazy SA, Wang P, Anand M, Ingham RJ, Gelebart P, Lai R. The tyrosine343 residue of nucleophosmin-anaplastic lymphoma kinase (NPM-ALK) is important for its interaction with SHP1, a cytoplasmic tyrosine phosphatase with tumor suppressor functions. J Biol Chem 2010;285(26):19813-20
• Dien Bard J, Gelebart P, Anand M, Zak Z, Hegazy SA, Amin HM, Lai R. IL-21 contributes to JAK3/STAT3 activation and promotes cell growth in ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Am J Pathol 2009;175(2):825-34

Professional Societies

• UMEDS Council Member-at-Large, the Association for Academic Pathology (AAPath), formerly the Association of Pathology Chairs, 2024-2026
• The Association of American Medical Schools (AAMC), Curriculum Committee and Curriculum Committee Virtual Community Champions Subcommittee, Member, 2023-Current
• International Association of Medical Sciences Educators (IAMSE), Voting Member of the Onboarding Committee (2021-Current), and the Professional Development Committee (2023-Current)
• Undergraduate Medical Education Section (UMEDS) of the Association for Academic Pathology (AAPath), formerly the Association of Pathology Chairs, Member, 2021-Current
• United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP), Member, 2021-Current

Service on Department Committees

• BMTS Executive Committee, Member, 2022-Current

Service on College Committees

• Foundational Sciences Subcommittee, Voting Member, 2024-current
• Foundational Sciences Subcommittee, Ex Officio, 2023-2024
• Curricular Thread Subcommittee, Voting Member, 2023-Current
• Curriculum Transformation Subcommittee, Voting Member, 2023-Current (Elected by Dean Cohen)
• Curriculum Evaluation Subcommittee, Chair, 2023-Current
• Curriculum Oversight Committee, Vice Chair, 2023-Current
• Curriculum Evaluation Subcommittee, Voting Member, 2022-2023
• Curriculum Oversight Committee, Voting Member, 2021-2023
• Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Committee, Voting Member, 2021-2022

Honors

• Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship (Doctoral), Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (FGSR) (2010-2011)

Teaching Honors

• Certificate of nomination to Carle Illinois College of Medicine Faculty Excellence Award in Innovation in Education (2024)
• Certificate of Recognition in Academic Excellence (2024)

Research Honors

• CI MED's Second Annual Medical Education Experience (MEdX)Third Place Poster Presentation Award (2024)
• Prostate Cancer Canada and Building Trades of Alberta Apprenticeship (2015)

Other Honors

• Certificate of nomination to Carle Illinois College of Medicine Faculty Excellence Award in Professional Development (2024)
• Second Place Poster Presentation Award, Discovery Learning Research Immersion-Awarded to medical student Samantha Schatz and Faculty Advisor Samar Hegazy, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, UIUC, US (July 2024)
• Second Place Award in Medical Education Research, 22nd Annual Health Innovation Research Day-Awarded to medical student Kellie Mullany and Faculty Advisor Samar Hegazy, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, UIUC, US (April 2024)
• Association for Academic Pathology Society of '67 Open Access Publication Award- Awarded to medical student Kellie Mullany-Faculty Advisor Samar Hegazy (December 2023)
• Discovery Learning Electives First Place Poster Presentation-Awarded to medical student Duane Macatangay-Faculty Advisor Samar Hegazy (August 2023)
• 21st Annual Health Innovation Research Day First Place Award in Medical Education Research-Awarded to medical student Kellie Mullany-Faculty Advisor Samar Hegazy (April 2023)

Recent Courses Taught

• BSE 632 - Respiratory
• BSE 706 - Literature Review in Pathology
• BSE 706 - Literature Reviews in Path