Another site of interest is http://www.centagenetix.com/. This is
a company founded by the main authors of the new paper. It describes
itself as "a development stage biotechnology company founded to discover
the genetic basis of longevity."
They are developing what they call the Ideal Genome. "Centagenetix[tm]
believes that its proprietary database of genetic and phenotypic
information from centenarians may represent the Ideal Genome[tm] for
comparison in the discovery, identification, and study of specific genes
associated with age-related diseases."
Not too much information at the site; they don't have the paper up either.
Their press release seems to be the basis for most of the news stories:
The prevalent belief among researchers in the field of aging research
has been that as many as 1,000 genes influence aging. Kunkel, Annibale
A. Puca, M.D., and their colleagues in the Division of Genetics at
Children's Hospital Boston were able to pinpoint a region on Chromosome
4 in humans containing one, or at most, a few longevity-related genes
by looking at the trait of exceptional longevity, rather than genes
responsible for age-related diseases. Having found the region in which
this gene or genes lie, the group intends to identify the exact gene
or genes responsible for longevity.
...
DNA was extracted from whole blood obtained from 137 so-called sibships
-- centenarians and one or more siblings (ages 91 to 109 years) -- for
a total of 308 people predominantly of European descent. Co-authors
Kunkel and Puca, then performed a sibling pair linkage study, using
400 markers spread along the entire human genome to find any region
their subjects had in common.
The search led them to a region on Chromosome 4 that contains between
100 to 500 genes. They are 95 percent certain that area is the right
place to search for specific genes that are in part responsible for
exceptional longevity.
Hal
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