Robyn L Tanguay

Robyn Leigh Tanguay (born Robert Tanguay) is an American researcher, academic and educator. She is a distinguished professor in the department of environmental and molecular toxicology at Oregon State University. She is the director of Superfund Research Program, the director of Pacific Northwest Center for Translational Environmental Health Research and the director of Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory at OSU.

At OSU, she leads the eponymous Tanguay Lab, where she applies systems toxicology principles using the zebrafish (Danio rerio) to discover the chemicals in the environment that can interact with expressed genomes to produce diseases and other dysfunctions. Her central hypothesis is that intrinsic chemical structures dictate biological activity. The shape of chemicals permit interactions with distinct biological targets to alter normal biological activity. She uses chemical structural information; coupled with the biological responses they produce in zebrafish, as anchors to screen for potentially hazardous chemicals and to discover new biology.

Education Tanguay was born in 1966 in Menominee, Michigan. After finishing the 11th grade, Tanguay moved, to Fontana, California where she graduated from Fontana High School. She then joined University of California, Riverside, where she received a Ph.D in biochemistry in 1995 under the guidance of Daniel R Gallie. She completed her Postdoctoral training with Richard E. Peterson at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Career In 1999, Tanguay joined University of Colorado as an assistant professor of molecular toxicology. She left the University of Colorado in 2003 to join Oregon State University as an associate professor of molecular toxicology and to direct the Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory, becoming full professor in 2010. She directs of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and is the current Oregon State University Superfund Research Center and formerly the Pacific Northwest Center for Translational Environmental Health Research. In 2011, she became the youngest distinguished professor to date at Oregon State University.

In 2006, Tanguay joined Wenzhou Medical College in China as an Adjunct Faculty Member (2006-2008). Tanguay has served on many academic, commercial and federal advisory boards. She served as the Vice President of Northwest Association of Toxicologists in 2006 and later served as the President of the association in 2007. In 2016, she served as the president of Society of Toxicology Nanotoxicology Specialty Section. She has been the associate editor of Toxicology Reports since 2013, Toxicological Sciences since 2014, and Nanomaterials since 2015.

Research Tanguay applies systems toxicology principles using the zebrafish to discover the chemicals in the environment that can interact with expressed genomes to produce diseases and other dysfunctions. Her central hypothesis is that intrinsic chemical structures dictate biological activity. The shape of chemicals permit interactions with distinct biological targets to alter normal biological activity. She uses chemical structural information; coupled with the biological responses they produce in zebrafish, as anchors to screen for potentially hazardous chemicals and to discover new biology.

Awards and honors 2012 – PANWAT Achievement Award 2018 – Outstanding Alumni Award Cal State University San Bernardino 2018 – Roy G. Arnold/Agricultural Research Foundation Leadership Award, College of Agriculture Sciences 2019 – Agricultural Research Foundation Distinguished Faculty Award 2020 – Society of Toxicology Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Scientific Achievement Award 2021 – Oregon State University Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring Award 2023 – Society of Toxicology Toxicologist Mentoring Award 2023 – Fellow - Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University 2025 – Society of Toxicology Leading Edge in Basic Science Award