http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/science/tasmanian-devils-cancer-immunity.html 2016-09-05 09:44:44 New Hope for Tasmanian Devils in Fight Against Contagious Cancer Scientists believe that genetic variation in some animals that may make them resistant to cancer. === There may yet be hope for the Tasmanian devil. The marsupial carnivores have been struck with a lethal and contagious cancer that has reduced their population by 80 percent. But now scientists believe that the animals have found a way to fight back: a genetic variation in some individuals that may make them resistant. In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers examined the genomes of three isolated populations of devils living in different parts of Tasmania. In each population, the scientists “The populations are evolving independently, but changes across all three are consistent,” said the senior author of the paper, Andrew Storfer, a professor of biology at Washington State University. “This makes what we found more compelling.” These adaptations happened so quickly — in as few as six generations — that the scientists believe they are not genetic mutations, but already existing variations now becoming more common because they offer some sort of protection against the cancer.