Robust Octogenarians’ Genes Seen Holding Secrets To Aging

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-20/robust-octogenarians-genes-seen-holding-secrets-to-aging.html

Exactly why James Markam is alive and well is a bit of a mystery. The octogenarian has lost four siblings to cancer, heart disease and emphysema, all before they reached the age of 62. Yet the retired airline executive recalls only one bout of sickness, culminating with a chest cold, 50 years ago.

Scientists are taking a deep look at Markam’s genetics to see if there’s something protecting him from illnesses that affect others his age, such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Markam, 83, is one of more than 1,300 individuals identified as having what Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, called “Teflon-coated” genes.

“We think it’s in the genome in these individuals,” said Topol, who is leading research of healthy older people called the Wellderly Study at the La Jolla, California-based institute. “You don’t see any environmental thing that would be explaining this.”

The study, the first focused on healthy aging, expects to have the first set of participants’ genes sequenced by the end of the year, said Cliff Reid, chief executive officer of Mountain View, California-based Complete Genomics Inc. (GNOM), which is doing the work for free.