PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Scientists have provided direct evidence that a class of proteins plays a role in extending life. . .

the same story from a different news source:
Researchers Describe a Gene That Controls Life Span

Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers
ADVANCE...for release 1 p.m. PST, Thurs. Nov. 13

(ADVANCE) SAN FRANCISCO--(BW HealthWire)--Nov. 13, 1997--For reasons that science has not yet fathomed, life span differs radically among creatures, even among those roughly similar in size and physiology, such as humans and their larger canine pets.
It might seem that people age simply because their bodies become damaged and wear out. But evidence emerging from studies of a tiny worm is beginning to suggest that our length of stay on Earth instead may be governed largely by the normal patterns whereby genes are either activated or are made dormant.
A new study reported by researchers from the University of California San Francisco in the Nov. 14 issue of Science demonstrates that gene activity can be manipulated to alter life span.

By Lawrence G. Proulx
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 11, 1997; Page Z27
The Washington Post

By Martine Rothblatt

Temple University Press, Philadelphia

201 pages; $49.95 cloth, $18.95 paper

Eugenics is as close to a taboo as one can find in science
today. Find someone who calls himself a eugenicist and you're
likely to have found someone most people would call a kook.

At the same time, there are plenty of geneticists, embryologists,
fertility consultants, reproductive endocrinologists and genetic
counselors. The federally funded Human Genome Project is
methodically cataloguing every nucleotide in every gene in our
bodies. In vitro fertilization is a commonplace. And gene
therapy is the hot synonym for hope in medical research....

October 20, 1997, Tom Salemi Journal Staff

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho frightened folks right out of their showers.

Jaws, the Great White classic, scared people completely of the water.

So will "Gattaca," an upcoming science fiction thriller detailing life in society filled with genetically engineered "perfect" people, hang a frightening mask on the biotechnology business?

In this age of cloning breakthroughs - and cloning fears - it's easy to see how the movie "Gattaca" came to be made.

October 2, 1997, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Routine screening of newborns for cystic fibrosis could prevent malnutrition among infants with the disease, a study found.

Cystic fibrosis is one of America's most common fatal inherited diseases. It allows mucus to clog the lungs and also affects the pancreas, harming digestion and the absorption of vitamins. Without treatment, most patients die in infancy or childhood from malnutrition or lung infections.

Routine screening is now offered only in Wisconsin, Colorado and Wyoming because a 1983 task force appointed by the U.S. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation said the screening tests were too unreliable and the benefits of early treatment unclear.

However, a study in today's New England Journal of Medicine found that a newer screening test allows infants to be diagnosed much earlier and get a head start on nutritional therapy and other treatment....

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Human lifespan is probably more influenced by lifestyle and other environmental factors than by genetics, according to a report in this week's issue of the journal Science. ``The choice of life-style profoundly influences the outcomes of aging,'' conclude the study authors.

As a medical researcher, Scott McIvor never suspected that his efforts to develop new cures would lead him to the edge of a brewing bioethical storm. Then, a few months ago, he got an e-mail message from a doctor who wanted McIvor to help him change a patient's skin color.

Not just a scientific sensation, genetic copying of animals is attracting commercial interest.

A sheep cloned from adult cells opens vast scientific possibilities and ethical dilemmas.

The explosion in genetic diagnosis and therapy poses a variety of challenges to society. Many wonder if our abilities to collect information and undertake efforts at therapeutic intervention are racing ahead faster than law, ethics and public policy can respond. A crucial problem in facilitating moral, legal and public policy discussion and debate of developments in genetics is the absence of a comprehensive resource site which has readily available information on ethical, legal, legislative, religious and policy developments as well as ongoing scholarship and research.

WEBGET will bring these resources together in a single location in a format that will be invaluable to teachers at all levels, bench scientists, patients and consumers, students, biotechnology and pharmaceutical corporations, government agencies, and practicing clinicians.

Back to the Genetics syllabus

last updated 15 November, 1997 Dave Ussery