New York Times: Deep in This Lake, a Contagious Cancer Is Spreading (JUL 22, 2026)
Research led by Larner Associate Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Julie Dragon, Ph.D., published this week in Nature, identified a growth that looks like a black smear on a Lake Memphremagog brown bullhead fish (a/k/a North American catfish) as melanoma—and it is contagious. It spreads from one fish to another as living cancer cells. This is the first type of transmissible cancer found in a fish and the first in fresh water.
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