Research on age-related genes may extend life

Tuesday, 09 February 2010

According to several newspapers we will soon be able to find out how fast a person is likely to age. Some people, it seems, are more genetically predisposed to age faster than others due to a genetic variation.

The newspaper reports say that thanks to a recent research study, scientists may soon be able to identify those people at risk of age-related illnesses and may be able to find ways for people to achieve a longer lifespan.

The study was conducted by Dr Veryan Codd and his team from King's College, London and other colleges and universities in the UK and Europe. It targeted several thousand people who had their DNA scanned. Scientists set out to identify a gene variant that is associated with the length of telomeres: there are certain sections of DNA that shorten with age.

According to the results of the survey, there is one particular gene variant responsible for a small proportion of the variation in telomere length between people which is 3.6 years of age-related shortening.

There is still much to learn about age-related genes and there are many factors waiting to be discovered which should help to develop technologies to detect disease to prevent premature death through illness, and thereby extend lifespan.

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