Three hours after a particular poster session began at the 2007 Society for Toxicology meeting, the line to see Courtney Kozul's poster still wrapped around the room, and she had collected 90 business cards. Clearly, her findings on the effects of diet on gene expression in mice were of interest.
In 2006, under the guidance of Joshua Hamilton at the Dartmouth Medical School, Kozul set out to determine the baseline level of arsenic in standard lab mouse chow. Hamilton's group had found that arsenic in drinking water disrupts hormones and can contribute to cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. In light of the US Environmental Protection Agency's decision to lower the federal limit for arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb, Kozul wanted to study the effects of much smaller arsenic doses. There are no limits for arsenic levels in food, and trace amounts can ...
