Senior research scientist works with undergrads at Wood Hudson cancer lab

Wood Hudson Cancer Research Laboratory, the small, Newport-based lab that does leading-edge work on cancer, has hired a new researcher.

Erik Arnold Bey recently joined Wood Hudson as a senior staff scientist. From 2019 to 2022, Bey was an associate professor on the research track at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. He has also held positions at West Virginia University School of Pharmacy and Cancer Biology Training Program as an assistant professor, and was an instructor in the Cancer Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Erik BeyBey’s resume includes training and experience in cell and molecular biology, cancer biology, pharmaceutics, drug delivery and nanomedicine. His research interests include understanding the role that oxidative stress regulatory genes play in tumor biology, specifically in lung and breast cancers, Wood Hudson says. He also has interest in stem cell biology, radiation biology and metastases.

Part of his role includes work with the students in Wood Hudson’s Undergraduate Research Education Program. College students in the program design a research project to answer an unanswered question in cancer, meet with experienced scientists and physicians, study research techniques and discuss recent scientific papers. More than 100 former students are now physicians or Ph.D.-level research scientists. 

Wood Hudson recently received a $33,000 grant from the Josephine S. Russell Charitable Trust that will help support the program and Bey’s hiring, as will continued funding from the R.C. Durr Foundation and the Chemed Foundation, Wood Hudson said.

Wood Hudson is an independent, not-for-profit research lab that was established more than 40 years ago, and for more than 30 years has been located in the former site of Corpus Christi School on Isabella Street in Newport’s Buena Vista neighborhood.