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If you are curious about the enzymes/genes that are involved in the aging process here is an interesting link: http://crea.berkeley.edu/wong-interview.shtml ht

• jbm 17y ago
  I studied genetics as my major, but that was a while ago (7 years ago now?). Here is the short version of what I remember. Telomeres are areas of non-expressed DNA at the end of your chromosomes. If the telomeres are too short in a strand of DNA, they are eliminated. (This could happen for a variety of reasons, ranging from replication errors to direct damage to the strand that was being replicated due to exposure to radiation or other mutagens). When you get older, long-term damage to your DNA means that your telomeres have been slowly getting shorter. When I was a student, the theory was that this was one of the causes of ageing (less and less replications can be done from a strand, etc..) The research Dr. Wong is doing appears to be about the role of telomeres in patients suffering from a disease where white blood cells have no telomeres attached. One of the therapeutic ideas she is investigating is artificially adding telomeres to see if it has any benefit. Another question raised is whether or not this sort of therapy could apply to retard ageing. Fascinating stuff, all around.