Whales don’t get cancer: How bowhead whale DNA could change human health

Whales don’t get cancer as often as you might expect, and in this episode you learn how the bowhead whale’s unique DNA repair system is helping scientists understand cancer prevention and healthy aging. This Arctic giant lives more than 200 years, grows to airplane size, and still avoids the runaway mutation patterns that lead to tumors in other species.

Whales don’t get cancer at high rates because their cells repair DNA damage with remarkable accuracy, and recent studies show that bowhead whales have powerful repair proteins like CIRBP that might someday guide cancer research. You will hear how this repair strategy works, why it matters for humans, and why protecting long-lived marine mammals also protects the scientific insights they carry.

Chapters:
00:00 Opening hook, why bowhead whales matter
00:48 Introducing the idea that whales avoid cancer
01:32 How bowhead whales reach 200 years of life
02:20 What scientists discovered about DNA repair
03:15 The role of CIRBP and cold water adaptation
04:22 How whale cells fix DNA more precisely
05:18 Why size plus long life should cause cancer
06:10 What the research means for human medicine
07:50 Limits of the research and what we still do not know
09:05 Why ocean conservation connects to human health
11:00 Final reflections on whales and cancer research
12:20 Call to action and episode wrap

#oceanconservation #MarineBiology #SaveOurOceans #ProtectTheOcean #OceanAwareness #BluePlanet #ConservationMatters #ScienceForChange #SustainableOceans
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