Scientists Can Now Radically Expand the Lifespan of Mice—and Humans May Be Next

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With a bit of clever genetic engineering, a team of scientists has just found an astonishing way to significantly expand the natural lifespan of mice. Now, at least one biotech company hopes to translate this breakthrough to fight aging in humans.

In a study published today in the journal Nature, medical researchers at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine—led by cell biologists Darren Baker and Jan van Deursen—have made this decade's biggest breakthrough in understanding the complex world of physical aging. The researchers found that systematically removing a category of living, stagnant cells (ones which can no longer reproduce) extends the lives of otherwise normal mice by 25 percent. Better yet, scouring these cells actually pushed back the process of aging, slowing the onset of various age-related illnesses like cataracts, heart and kidney deterioration, and even tumor formation.

"It's not just that we're making these mice live longer; they're actually stay healthier longer too. That's important, because if you were going to equate this to people, well, you don't want to just extend the years of life that people are miserable or hospitalized," says Baker.

The cells the scientists eliminated are called senescent cells. A senescent cell is an otherwise normal cell—say a skin or heart muscle cell—that has stopped dividing and reproducing. Right now, they're found all over your body. Now, these cells have long been known to be associated with aging, "for example, in mice or people or monkeys, you find an accumulations of these senescent cells over time and with age. And at sites of age-related disease, like osteoporosis, you'll also find these cells," says Baker. One theory behind why these cells exist in the first place is that hyper-stressed cells become senescent to prevent potentially cancerous, unfettered reproduction.

But until now, exactly what effect living senescent cells actually have on the body—either slowing aging, speeding it up, or not effecting the aging process at all—has largely been a mystery. But by leveraging modern techniques in genetic engineering, Baker and his colleagues finally set up an experiment that conclusively proved that the presence of senescent cells is largely a negative one. They shorten total lifespan and hasten the onset of age related illnesses, like cardiovascular disease.

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I think it's absolutely amazing some of the discoveries they're making in the field of genetics. It's also terrifying to think of some of the things they can possibly do to manipulate us as humans.