News

Evolution and geographical spread of a Tasmanian devil transmissible cancer

24 November 2020

A new paper from the Transmissible Cancer Group at the University of Cambridge Department of Veterinary Medicine reveals how a transmissible cancer has spread through the Tasmanian devil population, and how this cancer’s genome has evolved and diversified during it evolution. Tasmanian devil facial tumour 1 (DFT1) is a...

Story behind the paper

7 October 2020

Our latest study on selfish mitochondria in the canine transmissible venereal tumour (CTVT) was recently published in Nature Communications . How did this discovery come about? What were the major turning points in our research? Are you interested to look behind the scenes of this latest CTVT article? You can read more in...

Well done Dr. Maximilian R. Stammnitz!

25 September 2020

Another TCG PhD, Dr. Maximilian R. Stammnitz, successfully passed his virtual PhD viva on the 7th September 2020! Huge congratulations to Max to finish his PhD in style during this difficult time, WELL DONE!!! TCG members gathered together after his viva to celebrate his big day.

Selfish mitochondria in a canine transmissible cancer

16 June 2020

A new study by the Transmissible Cancer Group published in Nature Communications today! Previous research has shown that at several points in history, mitochondria - which are compartments providing cells with their energy - from unrelated host dogs have been captured by CTVT, perhaps to aid survival of this long-lived...

Human anti-cancer drugs could help treat transmissible cancers in Tasmanian devils

3 April 2020

TCG PhD graduate Adrian Baez-Ortega won Weintraub Graduate student Award for 2020!

2 March 2020

Many congratulations to Adrian Baez-Ortega, who won Weintraub Graduate student Award for 2020! The Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award recognizes outstanding achievement during graduate studies in the biological sciences. This is a very prestigious international graduate student award from the US! Awardees will...

Many congratulations to Dr. Maire Ni Leathlobhair

20 December 2019

TCG second PhD, Dr. Maire Ni Leathlobhair, was officially graduated! Maire obtained her PhD from Cambridge in 2018 and used computational and statistical modelling of genomic data to understand the origin and evolution of transmissible cancer. She is currently a post-doctoral researcher in the Cancer Genomics group led by...

Congratulations to Dr. Maire Ni Leathlobhair!

20 December 2019

Congratulations to Dr. Maire Ni Leathlobhair!

TCG collaborator from Argentina, Dr. María Verónica Brignone , visited TCG group at Cambridge for 2 weeks in September 2019

8 November 2019

Dr. María Verónica Brignone is a Vet from Argentina, who has collected CTVT tumour biopsies from dogs in Argentina and hosted a visit from a TCG PhD at Argentina previously. During her 2 weeks visit in September, Maria extracted genomic DNA from these CTVT samples and performed PCR analysis for genetic analysis to...

"Somatic evolution and global expansion of an ancient transmissible cancer lineage" published on Science today!

2 August 2019

Many congratulations to Adrian Baez-Ortega's new paper published on Science 2nd August 2019! "Somatic evolution and global expansion of an ancient transmissible cancer lineage" Well done Adrian and the team! Here are some links to the news about the paper: https://www.cam.ac.uk/caninecancer https://www.wired.com/story/how-...