Researchers at the University of Montana identified a unique mouse that may hold some clues for cancer research. This Andean mouse’s high-elevation home is what attracted researchers.
When University of Montana researchers learned about a species mouse scuttling through the Andes mountains at extreme elevations, it piqued their interest.
"We wanted to know how the heck they actually lived up there," says Schulyer Liphardt, one of the researchers.
Mammals don’t live above 19,000 feet, because the oxygen levels are so low it can be deadly. But the Andean leaf-eared mouse has been documented living in places up 22,000 in elevation.
Liphardt, alongside a team of other researchers across three countries recently published research in Science highlighting these small creatures.
What they found may help others understand ways of treating illnesses that also restrict oxygen in cells, like certain cancers.
"Specifically those ones that we're interested in that can kind of mimic what tumors and things like that go through," Liphardt says.
They believe the mouse has genes that allow them to live in places with little oxygen. Liphart says understanding those adaptations could hold clues for treating cancer.
Liphardt says their next steps are to dive deeper into the leaf eared mouse’s genealogy.
