Courtesy of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
On Nov. 28, a group of Harvard University researchers published results from a tantalizing study in the online edition of the journal Nature. Their experiment involved mice who were genetically engineered to lack telomerase — an enzyme that maintains protective DNA caps on the end of chromosomes. People (and mice) with long caps, called telomeres, tend to live longer than those with short caps. Without the protective enzyme, these poor Harvard mice die at around six months of age.