Cory Gerlach hanging out with the zebrafish at the Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory (SARL)
Cory Gerlach hanging out with the zebrafish at the Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory (SARL)

Cory Gerlach is an undergraduate student in the Tanguay lab and will be graduating this spring with an Honors Bachelor of Science in Bioresource Research.  Besides winning awards, Cory has transformed his career with valuable research experience gained over the last two years.

In 2013, Cory won the best undergraduate research presentation at the PANWAT meeting in Seattle. The title of his PANWAT poster was “Mono-substituted isopropylated triaryl phosphate, a major component of flame retardant mixture Firemaster 550, is an AHR agonist that exhibits AHR-independent cardiac toxicity”.

In 2014, Cory won the best undergraduate poster presentation at the OSU EMT Research Day, and he received a Pfizer SOT Undergraduate Student Travel Award for the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) in Phoenix, AZ to present his recent findings.

Reflection of Experience by Cory Gerlach

My experience in the Tanguay lab has completely changed my career path.
Before I began my undergraduate research, I thought I would get a masters
in public policy or shift my focus from science to policy or law in some
graduate program. However, in the Tanguay lab I discovered my passion for
bench research, found that I was good at it, and learned that these basic
discoveries are crucial in order to affect policy and therefore improve
public health. Having Dr. Tanguay as a mentor has also helped me to keep
in mind the big picture of my research, and he has taught me that there is
always room for innovation and improvements to how we answer big research
questions. Continue reading

To assist with the goals of Project 3: Systems Approach to Define Toxicity of Complex PAH Mixtures, Dr. Robyn Tanguay has implemented precision robots to speed up screenings of zebrafish embryos at the Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory (SARL).  These robots are unique only to Oregon State University.

Tanguay’s research group investigates the health effects of pesticides and other environmental chemicals using zebrafish embryos. The researchers expose the zebrafish embryos to various chemicals and look for malformations. Understanding these effects on zebrafish embryos contributes to the knowledge of the chemicals’ potential to affect human health, particularly with regard to developmental pathways.

The video below entitled, The Robot’s Edge: Custom automation helps scientists screen environmental chemicals was produced by Larry Pribyl and Lee Sherman from OSU News and Research Communications. They appreciated the help from Chappell Miller and others in the Tanguay lab who contributed.

Other Recent SARL Stories

  • From Zebrafish to You: Popular aquarium fish provides a window on environmental chemicals (a story and podcast from Terra Magazine, July 2013)