✅ “They reset their clock and are as young as if they had been born just days ago”. ✅ American Biostasis Foundation. ✅ Two new hallmarks of aging. ✅ One step closer for Verve Therapeutics. ✅ The FDA is beginning to phase out animal testing. ✅ The problem with trying to nuance AI hype.
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Three decades later C. elegans can still teach us a thing or two about aging
In 1993, Cynthia Kenyon transformed the field of aging biology when she showed that a single mutation in the daf-2 gene - the C. elegans equivalent of the insulin/IGF-1 receptor - could double the worm’s lifespan. This discovery overturned the long-standing assumption that aging was simply inevitable wear and tear, revealing instead that it could be genetically regulated.
Three decades later, research on C. elegans continues to deliver fresh insights. A new study from Björn Schumacher’s lab at the University of Cologne uncovers a naturally evolved program of age deceleration and reversal during the worm’s dauer* (diapause) stage - a stress-resistant, metabolically suppressed larval form that can survive harsh conditions for months.
