IT’S not quite the elixir of life, but researchers have at last identified gene variants that make people live longer. Men may miss out, as all carriers identified so far are women. They’re also slightly shorter than average.
“We’re moving closer to understanding why some people live longer,” says Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, New York, head of the team that identified the two gene mutations in centenarians of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.
Both mutations affect the receptor for insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), a driver of bodily growth and maturity, especially during…
