Scientists have pinpointed genes linked to the ageing process and found a way of almost doubling the lifespan of rats. One expert believes the first human being to live to be 1,000 years old may have been born. What are our chances of living forever? Hayden Smith finds out.

Do you want to live until you’re 1,000? (Picture: Alamy)

Queen asked who wanted to do it, Oasis promised ‘you and I’ were going to do it and Dorian Gray was doomed by pursuing it.

The desire to live forever has intrigued us since the start of human history. So far, attempts to reverse or even slow the ageing process have been the stuff of fantasy.



But recent developments suggest life is closer to imitating art than we think. The quest to develop or discover age-defying elixirs is ongoing in laboratories around the world, as scientists strive for what is often called the holy grail of medicine.


And scientific advances have been so substantial that one expert believes the first person to live to 1,000 may already have been born.

In recent weeks, two studies have attracted interest for their potential impact on ageing.

Researchers at King’s College, London, identified a group of four ‘Father Time’ genes that help determine how fast we age. They are switched on and off by natural mechanisms which can be caused by external factors such as diet and lifestyle, and may be programmed from an early age.

Experts said determining how the genes were altered could pave the way to anti-ageing therapies.

Another report emerged describing how researchers at the Université Paris-Sud found that a substance called Buckminsterfullerene, when combined with olive oil, almost doubled the life span of rats. In their article, the scientists hailed the ‘considerable potential’ of Buckminsterfullerene in cancer therapy and ageing.

Another milestone came in 2010 when researchers from Harvard University claimed they had reversed many of the effects of ageing in mice.

They achieved ‘dramatic’ results, including the reversal of brain disease and infertility, by ‘switching on’ an enzyme that protects telomeres.

Telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes, protecting them from damage, but wear away with age. At the start of 2012, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh found that giving stem cell injections to laboratory mice increased their life spans by up to three times.

Dr Laura Niedernhofer, who worked on the research, said: ‘My opinion is that there will be therapy, substances and techniques available soon that promise to delay ageing, but that it will be a decade or more before we have scientific proof that they work and before they become part of medical practice.’

These studies do not provide any immediate reason for immortality-seekers to get too excited, unless they’re mice or rats, but one expert believes we may already have reached an age when humans could live for a millennia.

Dr Aubrey de Grey said it was ‘highly likely’ the first human to reach 150 has already been born. He rates the chances of a person living to 1,000 at more than 50 per cent. It is a startling proposition but Dr de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist, believes a time when doctors can take control of the ageing process may be close. ‘We are definitely not there yet,’ he said.



‘We’ve got a 50-50 chance of developing regenerative medicine which really works comprehensively against ageing within the next 20 or 25 years.’He explained how the therapy might work: ‘Over a relatively short period, a few months or maybe a year, the individual would be restored in terms of internal and external structure so they look and feel like a young adult, even if they were 60 at the time of the therapy.

‘It all comes down to the fact that over the past decade we have made a great many advances in regenerative medicine, which means molecular and cellular repair of organs.

‘The thing about repair is that, when it is applied to ageing, it actually turns back the clock. It makes people genuinely biologically younger than they were. You can take people who are middle aged and make them into young adults.’

Dr de Grey, chief scientist at the Sens (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) Foundation, which conducts research into rejuvenation bio-technologies, said one example of the advance in medicine was the progress in the creation of artificial organs via tissue engineering.He foresees a ‘divide and conquer’ approach to ageing involving technologies which could, initially, rely on surgery before gradually using less invasive techniques such as injections.So, the question is, do people really desire immortality? Dr de Grey stressed that simply helping people live longer was not his main aim.

‘We are interested in postponing the ill health associated with old age,’ he said.

‘Our goal is not to get people to live a long time for the sake of living a long time. We are interested in keeping people healthy and any longevity impact of this is a side effect.

‘I don’t think it’s about how long people want to live.’