The major scientific interest of Dr. Panteleyev is to understand how environmental stress factors including toxic pollutants like dioxin affect skin homeostasis and susceptibility to certain common skin diseases. His current research projects are aimed at molecular pathways implicated in skin-environment communication and their role in control of such essential skin functions as hair growth, water/pathogen barrier, wound healing, and skin vasculogenesis. Dr. Panteleyev's studies of dioxin receptor (AhR) and its nuclear dimerization partner ARNT (Aryl hydrocarbon Receptor Nuclear Translocator) using genetically engineered mouse models revealed that these proteins play an essential role in skin embryonic development, desquamation, hair cycle control, and vascular response. Skin exposure to dioxin results in recruitment of these proteins by dioxin-dependent molecular cascade that may impair normal skin functions and thus contribute to development of specific skin clinical symptoms like chloracne. Activation of
dioxin-dependent pathway that targets several cytokines and regulatory factors playing key role in skin functioning may also affect susceptibility to common skin diseases and severity of their progression.

Further characterization of the AhR/Arnt pathway in skin functioning by Dr. Panteleyev's group will provide insight in to molecular mechanisms involved in adaptation of the skin to environmental factors. Such knowledge should open a new avenue to understanding the basic mechanisms maintaining skin homeostasis and developing new treatments for complex environmentally sensitive skin disorders.