The Office of Student Research is proud to feature Arleigh Wood in this week’s “Scholar Story”.

Arleigh Wood ‘21 is a Biology major at Longwood University. Arleigh also has minors in Chemistry and Spanish. Arleigh researches the use of genetically engineered T cells, called CAR T cells, to combat cancer. Participating in independent research has been a positive experience for Arleigh because “the hands-on experience has been so beneficial for me. Getting comfortable in the lab has made me confident and will give me a competitive edge against others when applying to post-graduate programs.”

In the fall of her senior year, Arleigh joined Dr. Amorette Barber’s research lab because she was “interested in potentially working in cancer research for my career, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to get experience and mentorship in this field.” Arleigh has benefited from doing independent research because “participating in research has given me an opportunity to learn both about the field of cancer research and responsibility. My research partner and I often had to coordinate schedules and have learned to follow a difficult protocol accurately. The independence that I have been given in research has made me more confident in my abilities to work in a lab on important projects.”

Arleigh presented her research at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research (NCUR) conference in April 2021. After graduation, Arleigh is going to attend Pharmacy school to earn her PhD/PharmD.

Congratulations to Arleigh on her successful research!

If you would like to have your research featured in a “Scholar Story”, or if you would like to learn more about getting involved in research at Longwood University, please visit Longwood’s Office of Student Research website http://www.longwood.edu/office-of-student-research/

or contact Amorette Barber, Director of the Office of Student Research (osr@longwood.edu or barberar@longwood.edu).