Schiffman specializes in treating children missing one of their TP53 gene's two alleles, which leads them to develop cancer. So after hearing Maley's talk, he wondered whether elephants held some biological insight that could help his patients. He teamed up with Maley, who had not yet published his work, and asked elephant keepers at Salt Lake City’s zoo whether they could spare some elephant blood so that he could test how the p53 protein works in the mammals' white blood cells.