Two papers published yesterday in a leading science journal challenge some of the key research that identified a longevity gene in worms and flies and helped lay the foundation for the search for drugs that fight human aging. In one of the papers, a prominent MIT researcher corrects his influential 2001 paper that showed that a genetic mechanism could prolong life in microscopic worms, finding that the life extension is much smaller than first reported. In the other paper, an international team reports that after correcting problems in how some experiments were conducted, increasing the activity of the gene in worms and fruit flies did not result in longer lifespans.
