Considering Genetic Variants and Superlongevity

Some very few humans live for decades longer than the average, and the available evidence suggests that at very late age - and ever increasing frailty - genetic variation becomes an increasingly important determinant of longevity. To be clear, almost everyone with a superior genome dies before reaching a century of age: the odds of making it that far are tiny regardless of your genes. But all it takes is a small increase in those tiny odds to ensure that the present population of very old people is weighted in favor of those who are slightly more resilient. So don't imagine that this is something worth recapturing in a therapy. The study of genetics and natural variations in human longevity will, I suspect, be a transitory curio of our short era. We stand in a thin slice of history in which medical technology is advanced enough to catalog genetics and cellular biochemistry, but still too primitive to bring aging under medical control. There isn't much of a gap between those two thresholds of progress; the second follows quite quickly after the first. After rejuvenation therapies are developed, well within the lifetimes of most of those reading this today, after the creation of a comprehensive toolkit to repair all of the forms of cell and tissue damage that cause aging, few people will ever get to the point of being so damaged that their genes are relevant to how long they can survive in that reduced state. There will be little interest in the study of the condition of being ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs