9781422282953

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S T E M I N C U R R E N T E V E N T S

This elephant is enjoying a treat provided by a zookeeper. But nature has given elephants a treat by providing a special gene that resists many cancers.

cell to kill itself, a process called apoptosis. Elephants, the study showed, have at least 40 copies of the gene that produces p53. Most of these copies developed over time as elephants evolved as a species. Being able to produce more p53 seems to make elephants naturally more able than humans to fight off cancer. Joshua Schiffman, an oncologist who took part in the study, said that elephants would perhaps be extinct if they didn’t have the ability to make cancer cells die before they spread. “Nature has already figured out how to prevent cancer,” Schiffman said, thanks to p53. “It’s up to us to learn how different animals tackle