Word: ruvkun
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...Ruvkun and other scientists choose to work with the laboratory roundworm, a tiny bacteria-eating soil-dweller, because the sequence of its entire genome is known and its 302-neuron nervous system has been described in detail...
...their recent study, Ruvkun and his colleagues first used genetic tricks to deactivate genes that encode the proteins--known as receptors--that respond to insulin signaling in many worm tissues, creating a group of long-lived individuals...
This result was surprising, according to Ruvkun, because when worms get old they start to show decay all across their body, just as people...
...instead, in the worm--and, Ruvkun suggests, perhaps in people as well--aging seems to be regulated by the brain. Ruvkun says this makes sense, as the entire body ages at the same rate, which might not be possible if aging were not regulated centrally...
...Ruvkun believes that the interaction between insulin and "free radicals" may explain its powerful effect on aging. Too many of these dangerous by-products of cellular metabolism can be lethal for an animal, but insulin can cause cells to stop producing enzymes which scavenge free radicals. If this process is turned off, he speculates, animals may live longer because they continue to eliminate free radicals...