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Bock is researching the binding of environmental contaminants to proteins. He explained that all animals with a spinal cord (vertebrates) have proteins that bind to contaminants, which can cause cancer and developmental defects such as cleft palate. One protein called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor 1 (AHR1) found in the spiny dogfish shark does not bind to the same environmental chemicals observed in other vertebrate groups. Bock is trying to understand why.

He has focused his study on AHR1 in the spiny dogfish shark. Running preliminary test tube and cell culture experiments, he is focusing his research on the amino acids that make up AHR1.

“Amino acids are the building blocks of a protein,” he explained. “I’m trying to understand the differences in amino acids that cause AHR1 in the spiny dogfish to function differently.”

The preliminary stage has taken months. “Some molecular processes can take hours,” he said, “and if an experiment doesn’t go the way it should, you run the experiment again. It does get frustrating, but you just refocus and try again.”

Bock’s research will form the basis of his thesis project, which he is developing under his advisor, Associate Professor of Biology Rebeka Merson. Bock described Merson as “a great mentor and teacher” who motivated him as an undergraduate to become a graduate student and delve deeper into research.

Laboratory research, he said, has increased exponentially his critical thinking skills. “Science calls for thinking outside the box,” he explained, “because you’re challenging the way something has always been studied.”

Bock added that science has also spawned within him an unending thirst to learn more: “The more you learn, the more you question, the more you want to learn more,” he said.

Along with his thesis project, Bock is assisting Merson with her own lab research on environmental contaminants in the marine environment, which is being conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Bock earned his Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 2014 and expects to earn his master’s degree in 2016.