Chemical carcinogens induce tumors in all exposed mice and rats, but not the blind mole rat. Furthermore, not a single case of spontaneous tumor development has been recorded among thousands of captive blind mole rats over a 40-year period. Intrigued by this observation, scientists use sequencing to study the genome and extreme adaptations of the blind mole rat. Studies show that blind mole rats have a substitution in the p53 gene that inactivates the apoptosis pathway. Surprisingly, p53 mutations are common in most human tumors and it seems like the blind mole rat has developed mechanism around the p53 pathway. Sequencing is helping us uncover animal adaptations to extreme environments, which bring us one step closer to understanding biological systems and even cancer. For more information on applications of Illumina technology in the field of Genomics, please visit us at Illumina: DNA sequencing http://www.illumina.com/applications/sequencing/dna_sequencing.ilmn Products: HiSeq: http://www.illumina.com/systems/hiseq_2500_1500.ilmn TruSeq RNA: http://www.illumina.com/sequencing/sequencing_kits/truseq_rna_sample_prep_kit.ilmn Publication Links: PMID: 24892994 | Fang X., et al. (2014): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24892994 PMID: 25088195 | Martinez E., et al. (2014): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25088195 Publication Research Reviews: Cancer Research Review http://www.illumina.com/documents/products/research_reviews/cancer_research_review.pdf The Science Mondays (SciMon) series is brought to you by Illumina http://www.illumina.com/ Illumina hosts Swati Kadam, Ph.D., Scientific Liaison, Scientific Affairs and Jacques Retief, Associate Director Scientific Affairs deliver 5 minutes of scientific enlightenment on the latest discoveries.