Contact information
tobytash@pilot.msu.edu

Education
Currently I am a Premed freshman at Michigan State University. I am a member of the Hughes Undergraduate Research Scholar Program which gives me the opportunity to gain lab experience during my four years at Michigan State. I joined the Zacharewski Lab in October of 1999.

Research Project

My research deals with the overexpression of AhR, the Aryl hydrocarbon Receptor and the chemical, dioxin. Dioxin is an environmental toxin that was first discovered during the production of trichlrophenol, a chemical used in the manufacturing of pesticides. Not occurring purely in nature, this deadly toxin is a by-product of combustion reactions involving chlorine and carbon.

AhR is a ligand-activated transcription factor. Structurally related to the Per, ARNT, and Sim proteins, the AhR receptor is referred to as an "orphan" receptor because its endogenous ligand remains unknown. What we do know about AhR is that it is activated by the chemical dioxin.