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Wood Hudson Cancer Research Lab recognizes Breast Cancer Awareness with research, internships


Breast Cancer Awareness Month has been an annual event since 1985. The goal of this yearly event is to improve education, promote regular screenings, encourage fundraising, and support those who have been diagnosed.

Wood Hudson Cancer Research Lab has been studying breast cancer since its founding in 1980 and currently surgical specimens from over 11,000 patients at St. Elizabeth Healthcare are preserved in the Wood Hudson Biospecimen Repository.

Specimens are returned to the hospital when needed by the patient or for further diagnoses or treatment. These tissues are studied by Wood Hudson scientists using protocols approved by the St. Elizabeth Healthcare Institution Review Board.

Currently, Dr. Erik Bey, Senior Staff Scientist at Wood Hudson, is working on a breast cancer study to better understand the role of changes in tumor metabolism in development of breast tumors and their invasion and metastasis to distant sites. Such studies can lead to the development of more effective therapies for treating breast cancer, which is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in US women, second only to lung cancer.
 
Breast cancer research at Wood Hudson has been supported by many individuals and foundations. A prominent example is the I Have Wings Breast Cancer Foundation, whose generous donations have supported our research for many years.

Men Tran of Vietnam is a student at NKU and a research intern at Wood Hudson.

Among the services Wood Hudson Research Laboratory offers is the opportunity for students to work with Dr. Bey to learn tissue culture techniques and assist with his study.

One of those students this year is Men Tran (Mia) of Vietnam who is junior at Northern Kentucky University pursuing a Bachelor of Science with a focus on Cellular/ Molecules/ Genetics.

Men Tran is one of three students assisting with the research. She has been in the U.S. for almost three years. During the last few years at NKU, she took Microbiology, Genetics, Ecology, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics, and many other science classes and has been involved in research since her sophomore year.
 


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