Long Life

A study published in the journal Cell Metabolism reports that researchers from Buck Institute for Research on Ageing and the University of Washington have identified the secret of extending life after switching off certain genes. The team concluded this after 10 years of research wherein they identified 238 genes linked to ageing.

Researchers during experiment figured out that these 238 genes when silenced increased the lifespan of yeast cells. Many of these genes are present in mammals including humans which suggest that switching them off could increase human lifespan.

Researchers for their study examined 4,698 yeast strains by deleting a single gene in each of these strains. Thereafter they counted yeast cells to determine which strains yielded increased lifespan by logging how many daughter cells a mother produced before it stopped dividing. Scientists found that deleting a gene called LOS1 in particular produced great results that extended lifespan by 60 percent.