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Have Tasmanian Devils Turned a Corner in Fight Against Cancer?

The spread of a deadly disease that was pushing Tasmanian devils towards extinction appears to be slowing, researchers say.

They found that the transmissible cancer called Tasmanian devil facial tumor disease is switching from an emerging disease to an endemic one.

Andrew Storfer.
Storfer

“It is cautiously optimistic good news,” said research team leader Andrew Storfer, a biologist at Washington State University.

“I think we’re going to see continued survival of devils at lower numbers and densities than original population sizes, but extinction seems really unlikely even though it was predicted a decade ago,” Storfer said in a school news release.

The findings could help improve understanding of how other emerging diseases evolve in animals and humans, according to the researchers.

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U.S. News

WSU Insider

The Guardian 

National Science Foundation

SESRC celebrates 50 years of social science research

The Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC) is celebrating 50 years of conducting social science research for Washington State University and others in need of information on people’s opinions and behaviors.

Don Dillman.“Many local residents and people throughout the state were reported as being upset at what students and faculty were doing,” said Don Dillman, deputy director for research and development at the SESRC.

In the midst of this unrest, James F. Short, Jr., founding director of SESRC, and Melvin Defleur, chair of sociology, proposed to President Terrell that they could create a telephone survey laboratory to learn what students and others in the community were thinking. The president agreed. Dillman was asked to form the Public Opinion Laboratory, install phones, hire interviewers, and provide results.

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WSU Insider

WSU Tri-Cities researchers use fungi to replace chemical fertilizers

A team at WSU Tri-Cities is researching a type of fungus that could replace chemical fertilizers in crops.

KC Cifizzari.
Cifizzari
Tanya Cheeke.
Cheeke

The team is working to see if applying inoculants that contain arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can help plants absorb light and water, said KC Cifizzari, biology graduate student. The team wants to reduce fertilizer use and provide alternative management strategies.

Using the fungi would not require growers to fertilize their crops every year, said Tanya Cheeke, assistant professor in WSU’s School of Biological Sciences. Once the fungi are added it would serve as a biofertilizer for the plants.

“One of the things about these fungi is that once you add them to the soil, as long as they’re not killed in some way, they are generally self-propagating,” Cifizzari said.

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Daily Evergreen

Beavers may help amphibians threatened by climate change

The recovery of beavers may have beneficial consequences for amphibians because beaver dams can create the unique habitats that amphibians need.

That finding was reported by four WSU Vancouver scientists in a paper published in the journal Freshwater Biology. The research took place in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest of the Cascade Range, where the researchers identified 49 study sites either with or without beaver dams. The researchers found the beaver-dammed sites were 2.7 times higher in amphibian species richness than the undammed sites.

Kevan Moffet.
Moffett
Jonah Piovia-Scott.
Piovia-Scott

“Beaver-dammed wetlands support more of the amphibian species that need a long time to develop in water as larvae before they are able to live on land as adults,” said Jonah Piovia-Scott, assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences and one of the authors of the article.

In addition to Piovia-Scott, the authors of the study are Kevan Moffett, assistant professor in the School of the Environment; John Romansic, former postdoctoral scholar in the School of Biological Sciences; and Nicolette Nelson, former graduate student in the School of Biological Sciences.

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WSU Insider

Science Daily

Weed-Killer Causes Epigenetic Changes That May Predict Disease Risk

Glyphosate is a common weed-killing chemical used in agriculture, and it may be best known as the active ingredient in Roundup herbicides. It’s estimated that as many as 90 percent of corn and 94 percent of soybean crops have been genetically engineered to tolerate the herbicide. Its safety has been the subject of fierce debate for many years, and while studies have indicated that it poses no threat to human health, other research has suggested that it may increase the risk of cancer.

Michael Skinner.
Skinner

“While we can’t fix what’s wrong in the individual who is exposed, we can potentially use this to diagnose if someone has a higher chance of getting kidney or prostate disease later in life, and then prescribe a therapeutic or lifestyle change to help mitigate or prevent the disease,” said corresponding study author Michael Skinner, a professor of biological sciences at Washington State University. Previous work by the Skinner lab has suggested that glyphosate causes heritable epigenetic changes.

“We need to change how we think about toxicology,” Skinner said. “Today worldwide, we only assess direct exposure toxicology; we don’t consider subsequent generational toxicity. We do have some responsibility to our future generations.”

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