Genomic insights into a contagious cancer in Tasmanian devils

•Utilisation of genetics and genomics techniques has driven our understanding of a contagious cancer in Tasmanian devils.•Karyotyping and genotyping revealed that the cancer was clonal.•Transcriptomics revealed that the cancer was of Schwann cell origin.•Genome sequencing has facilitated studies in conservation genetics and cancer evolution, and provided the springboard for understanding how the allograft evades the immune response.

The Tasmanian devil faces extinction due to a contagious cancer. Genetic and genomic technologies revealed that the disease arose in a Schwann cell of a female devil. Instead of dying with the original host, the tumour was passed from animal to animal, slipping under the radar of the immune system. Studying the genomes of the devil and the cancer has driven our understanding of this unique disease. From characterising immune genes and immune responses to studying tumour evolution, we have begun to uncover how a cancer can be ‘caught’ and are using genomic data to manage an insurance population of disease-free devils for the long-term survival of the species.