KarunaNews Story

Scientists searching for novel ways to fight cancer may have uncovered a promising new lead in the bowhead whale, the longest lived whale. Biologist Vera Gorbunova at the University of Rochester says that they use a protein that excels at repairing broken DNA. The research, which builds on findings about elephants, used small pieces of the whales shared by Iñupiaq subsistence hunters. Bowheads turned out to be even better than humans at repairing DNA breaks, at least in part because of a protein called CIRBP (cold-inducible RNA-binding protein) that’s produced by a gene activated by the cold. When the researchers caused human cells to overproduce the protein, those cells repaired DNA breaks more efficiently. Gorbunova says this is the power of looking beyond typical lab animals like mice and fruit flies. "If we only study very short-lived organisms, we cannot really find longevity mechanisms because they don't have them," she says. In contrast, whales and elephants have much to teach us.