Roundworms Get an Extended Lease on Life
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Scientists at UC San Francisco have created worms that live about six times longer than normal. The tiny roundworms lived for three months or longer, as compared with 18 to 20 days for a normal worm.
“In human terms, these animals would correspond to healthy, active 500-year-olds,” biologist Cynthia Kenyon and her colleagues reported in Friday’s issue of Science.
The team increased lifespan by blocking the action of a gene called insulin growth factor-1. They also removed the worms’ reproductive organs.
