Lisa M. Abegglen

About

Dr. Lisa M. Abegglen is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Utah and an investigator at Huntsman Cancer Institute. Her work focuses on understanding how animals naturally resist cancer and other diseases, and how these insights can be used to improve human health and wildlife conservation. She co-discovered that elephants have extra copies of the tumor suppressor gene TP53, which contributes to their enhanced cancer suppression and provides a model for developing new therapies. Dr. Abegglen also leads a cross-species biobanks, with samples from a large number of diverse species. Using these resources, her research explores the genetic and cellular mechanisms that influence cancer risk and immune defense, with an emphasis on translating evolutionary discoveries into novel strategies for cancer prevention and treatment. In addition, she studies elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus-hemorrhagic disease (EEHV-HD), focusing on how harmful innate immune responses drive severity and how they might be targeted to improve survival and support conservation.

Research topics

• Biology
• Ecology
• Genetics
• Internal medicine
• Medicine
• Evolutionary biology
• Pathology
• Computational biology
• Zoology
• Anesthesia

Selected publications

• Lifetime cancer prevalence and life history traits in mammals

  Evolution Medicine and Public Health · 2020 · 94 citations

  BACKGROUND: Cancer is a common diagnosis in many mammalian species, yet they vary in their vulnerability to cancer. The factors driving this variation are unknown, but life history theory offers potential explanations to why cancer defense mechanisms are not equal across species. METHODOLOGY: Here we report the prevalence of neoplasia and malignancy in 37 mammalian species, representing 11 mammalian orders, using 42 years of well curated necropsy data from the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Saf…

  DOI

• Elephant Genomes Reveal Accelerated Evolution in Mechanisms Underlying Disease Defenses

  Molecular Biology and Evolution · 2021 · 67 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Disease susceptibility and resistance are important factors for the conservation of endangered species, including elephants. We analyzed pathology data from 26 zoos and report that Asian elephants have increased neoplasia and malignancy prevalence compared with African bush elephants. This is consistent with observed higher susceptibility to tuberculosis and elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) in Asian elephants. To investigate genetic mechanisms underlying disease resistance, including…

  DOI

• Cancer Prevalence across Vertebrates

  Cancer Discovery · 2024-10-24 · 57 citations

  articleOpen access

  Cancer is pervasive across multicellular species, but what explains the differences in cancer prevalence across species? Using 16,049 necropsy records for 292 species spanning three clades of tetrapods (amphibians, sauropsids, and mammals), we found that neoplasia and malignancy prevalence increases with adult mass (contrary to Peto's paradox) and somatic mutation rate but decreases with gestation time. The relationship between adult mass and malignancy prevalence was only apparent when we contr…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Comparative Oncology: New Insights into an Ancient Disease

  iScience · 2020 · 35 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Cancer has deep evolutionary roots and is an important source of selective pressure in organismal evolution. Yet, we find a great deal of variation in cancer vulnerabilities across the tree of life. Comparative oncology offers insights into why some species vary in their susceptibility to cancer and the mechanisms responsible for the diversity of cancer defenses. Here we provide an overview for why cancer persists across the tree of life. We then summarize current data on cancer in mammals, rept…

  DOI

• Evidence for improved DNA repair in the long-lived bowhead whale

  Nature · 2025-10-29 · 26 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Daniel T. Chang

  400 shared

• Robert H. Bell

  Durham University

  300 shared

• J. Costello

  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  300 shared

• Lih‐Shen Chin

  Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

  300 shared

• Gary K. Steinberg

  Stanford Medicine

  300 shared

• Erik P. Sulman

  New York University

  300 shared

• Sylvia K. Plevritis

  300 shared

• N. Saito

  300 shared

Education

• PhD, Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis

  Emory University

  2005

• BS, Genetics

  University of Georgia

  1997

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