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Did you know that hormones as well as affecting your love life can also turn on genes? Örjan studies how the glucocorticoid receptor, a protein that responds to glucocorticoid hormones, turns genes on and off. In the presence of glucocorticoid, this receptor attracts proteins to its side that chemically modify chromatin, the mixture of proteins and DNA that makes up chromosomes, to switch on genes. To investigate which chromatin alterations switch on genes, Örjan uses oocytes of the African clawed toad. With a diameter of 1 mm, these cells are giants that can be seen with the naked eye.