Evolution of clonally transmissible cancers in dogs and Tasmanian devils

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• Dr Elizabeth P. Murchison, Cancer Genome Project, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
• Wednesday 18 November 2009, 16:30-17:30
• Lecture Theatre 1, Department of Veterinary Medicine.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Suzy Blows.

Cancer arises when a single cell of the body acquires mutations that release it from normal cellular constraints and allow it to grow uncontrollably. As disease progresses, the cancerous cells often become invasive and move to distant parts of the body. My research focuses on two cancers, one in Tasmanian devils, and one in dogs, in which the cancer cells have gained the unusual ability not only to spread within an individual, but also to be transferred between individuals. These diseases have provided an opportunity to study cancers that have outlived the individuals that gave rise to them and embarked on new evolutionary trajectories as free-living infectious parasites.

Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is a cancer affecting Tasmanian devils, the world’s largest marsupial carnivore, and canine transmissible venereal tumour (CTVT) is a venereal cancer of dogs. Both DFTD and CTVT are transferred between individuals by the direct transfer of cancer cells, but the two diseases have emerged independently and have strikingly different life histories. We are sequencing transmissible cancer genomes and transcriptomes at high resolution in order to gain an understanding of the evolutionary processes that have characterised the emergence of these unusual diseases.

This talk is part of the Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Cambridge Immunology
• Cambridge Infectious Disease
• Cambridge Infectious Diseases
• Departmental Seminar Programme, Department of Veterinary Medicine
• Lecture Theatre 1, Department of Veterinary Medicine
• Vet School Seminars

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