Four Words

There is an article in the New Yorker magazine about aging. It is beautifully written by Atul Gawande, one of my favorite writers.

Why we age is the subject of vigorous debate. The classical view is that aging happens because of random wear and tear. A newer view holds that aging is more orderly and genetically driven. Proponents of this view point out that animals of similar species and exposure to wear and tear have markedly different life spans. The Canada goose has a longevity of 23.5 years; the emperor goose only 6.3 years. Perhaps animals are like plants, with lives that are, to a large extent, internally governed. Certain species of bamboo, for instance, form a dense stand that grows and flourishes for a hundred years, flowers all at once, and then dies.

The idea that living things shut down and not just wear down has received substantial support in the past decade. Researchers working with the now famous worm C. elegans (two of the last five Nobel Prizes in medicine went to scientists doing work on the little nematode) were able to produce worms that live more than twice as long and age more slowly by altering a single gene.

"...and age more slowly..."

Those are my words.

From 1997 until 2001 I did PhD research at UCSF in one of the leading labs studying aging in C. elegans. We had long-lived mutant worms, but the link between their long-life and aging was unexplored. I explored it, finding simple markers for aging, and identifying a rapid-aging mutant. Of all the paths I explored, this one paid off best and soonest. So I published a paper and went off into the land of Zen.




Four years. Four words. Some imperceptible mark upon the world.



Dauers
Originally uploaded by dhavalsubhaspatel.

Tools of the trade (III)
Originally uploaded by md&r.