Scientists Say Living Up to 100 is in Your Genes

Researchers claim they have hit upon genetic sequences that can predict whether you'll live to the ripe age of 100. A team of scientists from Boston University studied over 1,000 centenarians to develop a system of genetic analysis by which they can predict -- with a 77-percent accuracy rate -- whether someone has a strong chance of "exceptional longevity," according to findings published Thursday in the journal Science. The predictions can by boiled down to the presence of 150 genetic variants, called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which doctors and researchers found to be common among the elderly who live substantially longer than the average population. "We have noticed in the study that there is a very strong familial component to exceptional longevity and that in conjunction with some other work has always made us believe that genetic is playing a very important role" in longevity, said Thomas Perls, a biostatistics professor at Boston University School of Public Health and co-leader of the study. "Centenarians are indeed a model of aging well. We have noticed in previous work than centenarians are disability free at the average age of 93 so they very much compressed their disabilities toward the very end of their life." Using computer modeling, the team tracked the presence of the multiple genetic variants in the study subjects and members of control groups to identify the most predictive SNPs. The researchers also identified 19 different clusters, or "genetic signatures" of exceptional longevity, found in 90 percent of the subjects, with the different signatures correlating with differences in the prevalence and the age-of-onset of diseases such as dementia