In the Media

Using the African turquoise killifish as a model for studying therapies and interventions to expand healthy lifespan.

This article provides commentary on a recent paper whose authors include MDI Biological Laboratory scientists Jarod Rollins, Ph.D., and Aric Rogers, Ph.D., that identifies synergistic cellular pathways for longevity that amplify lifespan fivefold in C. elegans, a nematode worm used as a model in aging research.

The MDI Biological Laboratory has received a $75,000 donation grant from The Cotswold Foundation that will add the African turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) to its growing roster of animal models, thus strengthening the institution’s longstanding tradition of engaging in comparative research to gain an understanding of the mechanisms involved in aging and regeneration.

Scientists at the MDI Biological Laboratory, in collaboration with scientists from the Buck Institute forResearch on Aging in Novato, Calif., and Nanjing University in China, have identified synergistic cellular pathways for longevity that amplify lifespan fivefold in C. elegans, a nematode worm used as a model in aging research.

A few simple genetic changes is all it takes to prolong a worm’s life span by 500 percent, a new study has found.

Scientists have identified synergistic cellular pathways for longevity that amplify lifespan fivefold in C. elegans, a nematode worm used as a model in aging research. The increase in lifespan would be the equivalent of a human living for 400 or 500 years, according to one of the scientists.

The study of therapies and interventions to expand healthy human lifespan has been limited by a lack of animal models: traditional vertebrate models such as the mouse live too long to get rapid results, while the most popular model, a roundworm called C.elegans that lives for only three weeks, is rungs away from humans on the evolutionary ladder.

Thanks to a $75,000 grant from The Cotswold Foundation, the MDI Biological Laboratory will add the African turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) to its growing roster of animal models.