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Essential question

Why do state primaries matter in a presidential election?

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Former circus elephants will retire from the big top tent this spring, but their work improving human lives has only just begun. These pachyderms and others will take part in new research trials to see if the traits that make their species nearly cancer-resistant can help human cancer patients. Given their size and larger number of cells, elephants should be even more susceptible to cancer than humans. Yet cancer is attributed to less than 5 percent of elephant deaths. Researchers now know that elephant genes have evolved to protect them from cancer. Whereas most humans have two copies of a specific gene called p53 that acts as a cancer-suppressor by killing or repairing mutant cells before they can spread and multiply, elephants carry 40 copies of this gene. Finding out how elephant p53 responds to cancer in human cells is now the primary goal of pediatric oncologist Dr. Joshua Schiffman. The ultimate goal is to develop a drug for humans that mimics elephant p53’s reaction to cancer cells. The research is still new, but doctors hope that learning how to regulate p53 could one day lead to better cancer treatment.

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Key terms

gene mutation – a permanent alteration in the DNA sequence that makes up a gene, such sequences differ from what is found in most people

Warm up questions ( before watching the video)

1. What causes cancer?


2. Do animals have ways of fighting disease that humans do not? Explain.


3. Is it ethical to use animals to study deadly human diseases?

Critical thinking questions ( after watching the video)

1. How might researchers like Dr. Schiffman be able to use information about p53 in elephants to better treat humans with cancer?


2. Why is Dr. Helman of the National Cancer Institute skeptical about using elephant genes to treat cancer in human beings?


3. Tony Means and his five children have Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a rare hereditary disorder that greatly increases the risk of developing several different types of cancer. Can you think of other examples in which scientific research that involved thinking outside the box helped people with serious diseases?