February 27, 2015 — Even when hobbyists pamper them in aquariums, turquoise killifish survive only a few months, making them among the shortest-lived vertebrates on Earth. So the turquoise killifish may not seem the best animal to study to discover the secrets of a long life.
But researchers are finding that this tiny fish ages much as we do, only at a much faster pace. “It’s a compressed life span,” said Itamar Harel, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University. Dr. Harel and his colleagues recently developed a set of tools to probe the biology of the turquoise killifish.
Old people may seem a more logical focus for scientists looking to discover the mechanics of aging, but progress would be glacial.
“Who has 70 years to study somebody else’s aging process?” asked Sarah J. Mitchell, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute on Aging.
Instead, scientists have sought the secrets of aging in a series of animal models. But none has perfectly mirrored what happens to humans.
Dr. Mitchell studies mice, which live three to four years. From them, she has learned how genes become more or less active in old age, and she has been able to test drugs that make mice live longer. Last year, Dr. Mitchell and her colleagues showed that a compound called SRT1720 extends the life span of mice by 8.8 percent on average while improving their health.
Read the full story at the New York Times