University of Tasmania, Australia

The Devil Facial Tumour Group comprising 10 people has been working on the iconic Tasmanian devil, which is suffering from an unusual type of tumour. This tumour developed in one female devil and more than 80 per cent of the population has succumbed to the disease since 1996.

Usually when foreign tissues are taken from one individual to another, the body rejects it, for some reason this doesn’t happen with the devil facial tumour disease. One of the aims of the group is to examine the immune cells and find a way to make the devil able to reject the tumour.

Through this research project, the team is taking devil cells and growing them to make vaccine candidates. They graft, harvest and treat the cells to try to make them more visible to the devils’ immune systems.