What’s up with the UW owning a shark tank?

The UW does maintain a shark tank, but its occupants weren’t brought here to make hard-nosed business decisions or to intimate our rivals. Instead, campus has a small school of nurse sharks helping to advance human health. (You might say they're sifting and minnowing in pursuit of a healthier world.) Housed in the UW Carbone Cancer Center, these fishy friends were placed under the care of Aaron LeBeau, a professor of pathology and lab medicine, as well as radiology, in 2021. LeBeau’s research focuses on exceptionally adaptable proteins called variable new antigen receptors (VNARs), which may one day help treat breast, colon, pancreatic, and prostate cancers. These sharks — and their VNARs — also made a splash during the COVID-19 pandemic. LeBeau’s lab produced research based on the sharks’ unique immune systems and the capabilities of their antibody-like VNARs that could help nurse humans back to health with future coronavirus therapeutics.