Tasmanian Devils and the transmissible cancer that threatens their extinction

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge’s connections with animals through literature, art, science and society.

Here, T is for Tasmanian Devil and the researchers studying the transmissable cancer that threatens these marsupials with extinction.

“We are motivated by the goal that our research will help to protect this unique and iconic marsupial from extinction” – Elizabeth Murchison

In 1996 a wildlife photographer working in a remote part of Tasmania noticed a ‘Tassie devil’ (the affectionate name for the Tasmanian devil) with a tumour on its face. He assumed that the animal’s facial disfigurement was a one-off — but within a year he spotted another devil with a similar problem. He notified the authorities and, as increasing numbers of affected devils were seen, it was established that the animals were suffering from a wave of devastating facial tumours.

Ten years after the first tumour was spotted, scientists revealed that the lesions weren’t ordinary tumours. They were caused by a transmissible cancer — an extremely rare type of disease, in which living cancer cells are physically transmitted between animals. Only three transmissible cancers are known in nature, and these affect dogs, clams and Tasmanian devils respectively. In the case of devils, the cancer cells are thought to be transmitted by biting.

Once they have acquired the cancer, devils usually live just a matter of months. No treatment exists. As the number of sightings of afflicted animals continued to escalate, with the disease moving across the island from east to west, it became clear that the Tasmanian devil was threatened with extinction.

Dr Elizabeth Murchison, a specialist in comparative oncology and genetics at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine, was brought up in Tasmania. The presence of Tasmanian devils — which are the emblem of the Tasmanian state — was part of her rural childhood. Devils are scavengers and, by disposing of dead animals, they provide a useful service as the ‘garbage bins of the bush’.

Murchison studied genetics and biochemistry at the University of Melbourne, and then studied for her PhD in molecular biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York. Her interest in solving the puzzle of the tumours began in 2006 when she came across a roadkill devil with a tumour in a wild area of Tasmania. This confronting finding triggered her desire to understand this strange disease.