In an issue of Science (2 December 2011), Jennifer Couzin-Frankel wrote a piece about the story of sirtuins and other ageing-related genes and molecules. It all began in the lab of Leonard Guarente (at MIT), around 1998. Leonard’s group presented the idea that there could be a set of genes linked to the lifespan-extending effect of calorie restriction. Many years have passed, many more people got involved and got interested, yet the controversies, arguments, conflicting results, and discussions continue to linger. The most recent finding came from Matt Kaeberlein and his colleagues, in which they confirmed no effects of a key ageing gene in invertebrate animals like worms and flies.
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