Byte-Sized Research: Naked Mole Rats Living Forever?

The naked mole rat, known for its slightly disturbing, unsettling looks, may hold the key to extending people's life spans. With a lifespan of about 40 years, the naked mole rat has been found by Chen et al. to have efficient, quicker-than-human repair abilities. The existence of four amino acids (much like proteins, but the units that make up a protein) in the cGAS protein is to be thanked for this. When the amino acids were introduced into fruit flies, the insects showed slowing organ degeneration and longer lifespans (yes, a lifespan longer than a day for a fruit fly is a big reach!). When the cGAS protein was injected into mice, they showed less gray hairs and reduced senescence markers (slows aging!) in many parts of their body. Who knows? Maybe the cure for society's dislike of aging will be from a societally-unattractive mole rat.

Tune in for next week's byte-sized research! Have a great week.