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SUMMARY:Evolution of clonally transmissible cancers in dogs and Tasmanian 
 devils - Dr Elizabeth P. Murchison\, Cancer Genome Project\, Wellcome Trus
 t Sanger Institute
DTSTART:20091118T163000Z
DTEND:20091118T173000Z
UID:TALK20532@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Suzy Blows
DESCRIPTION:Cancer arises when a single cell of the body acquires mutation
 s that\nrelease it from normal cellular constraints and allow it to grow\n
 uncontrollably. As disease progresses\, the cancerous cells often become\n
 invasive and move to distant parts of the body. My research focuses on\ntw
 o cancers\, one in Tasmanian devils\, and one in dogs\, in which the\ncanc
 er cells have gained the unusual ability not only to spread within\nan ind
 ividual\, but also to be transferred between individuals. These\ndiseases 
 have provided an opportunity to study cancers that have\noutlived the indi
 viduals that gave rise to them and embarked on new\nevolutionary trajector
 ies as free-living infectious parasites. \n\nDevil facial tumour disease (
 DFTD) is a cancer affecting Tasmanian\ndevils\, the world's largest marsup
 ial carnivore\, and canine\ntransmissible venereal tumour (CTVT) is a vene
 real cancer of dogs. Both\nDFTD and CTVT are transferred between individua
 ls by the direct transfer\nof cancer cells\, but the two diseases have eme
 rged independently and\nhave strikingly different life histories.  We are 
 sequencing\ntransmissible cancer genomes and transcriptomes at high resolu
 tion in\norder to gain an understanding of the evolutionary processes that
  have\ncharacterised the emergence of these unusual diseases.
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 1\, Department of Veterinary Medicine
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