Education:

• Undergraduate degree from Hastings College, Bachelor of Arts in Biology/Psychology, 1998
• Medical degree from University of Nebraska, MD, 2003
• Residency and Hematology/Oncology fellowship: Mayo Clinic, 2003-present

Personal:

Dr. Holtan and her husband Kirk have two young children, a son born in 2007 and a daughter born in 2009. Her children are a major inspiration for her research.

Research Focus:

Dr. Holtan is interested in the local and systemic immunologic parallels between pregnancy and metastatic melanoma. Cells of the developing placenta and melanoma cells share a similar ability to engage the host immune response to avoid an immunologic attack. Her goal is to identify novel targets for rescuing patients with metastatic melanoma from immunologic tolerance/exhaustion by carefully studying changes in immune homeostasis in healthy pregnancies.