Alicia L. BRUZOS

CANCER PARASITISM: Immunity mechanisms of bivalve transmissible cancers

Marine contagious cancers represent a fascinating, non-classical, and unexplored ‘host-pathogen system’. Contagious cancers are malignant cell lines that are transmitted from one host individual to another, thus making them comparable to horizontally transmitted parasitic microorganisms. In the wild, only eleven species with contagious cancer are known, nine of which are marine bivalves (several species of clams, cockles and mussels) and the other two are terrestrial mammals (dogs and Tasmanian devils). Bivalve transmissible neoplasia is a leukaemia-like cancer that is transmitted between individuals in the marine environment. Remarkably little is known of marine bivalves about how their immune system responds to cancer infection once it reaches a host so I investigate these questions using in vivo and in vitro experiments, combined with genomic and transcriptomic analyses as well as imaging techniques.

CANCER PARASITISM results will provide a broader picture of contagion susceptibility in bivalves, shed light on the immune mechanisms of hosts upon infection and explore cancer-host interactions. This project, therefore, has the potential to provide useful information for managing cancer outbreaks in marine bivalves, many of which are important for aquaculture and keystone species for the ocean, as well as providing insights into fundamental mechanisms of cancer metastasis and infectious diseases.

This project has received funding from the Normandy Region in France and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska Curie (grant agreement N° 101034329) through the WINNINGNormandy Fellowship Programme.