Is the cure for cancer in… WHALES?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Big animals need TONS of cell divisions to grow. That means more chances for DNA oopsies – AKA CANCER. But bowhead whales – despite their size – AREN’T more prone to cancer!! Why?
Enter Denis Firsanov and Max Zacher at the University of Rochester. They compared the DNA repair proteins of bowheads, mice, cows, and humans.
And? Bowhead whales are LOADED with a protein called CIRBP. Way more than humans! And adding the whale protein to human cells IMPROVED DNA repair!
By studying how other species repair DNA, we may PREVENT cancer!
And that makes me wanna put a little bow on a whale’s head.
Reference: Firsanov, D., Zacher, M., Tian, X. et al. Evidence for improved DNA repair in long-lived bowhead whale. Nature (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09694-5