The search for mutations that conjure medical superpowers has turned up people who are resistant to liver disease, even if they drink like crazy.

Big-time biotech company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals says it found people with a gene mutation that seems to leave them mostly immune to “fatty liver” disease, which is widespread in the US as a result of both alcoholism and overeating.

Now, the company says, it will partner with gene-silencing specialist Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to create medicines that mimic the effect.

Regeneron runs one of the world’s largest gene-sequencing operations in partnership with the Geisinger Health System, operator of a large hospital network.

It has the DNA code and the medical records of thousands of volunteers.

That allows the company to search for people unusually resistant to certain diseases and then determine if there’s an explanation in their DNA (see “The search for exceptional genomes”).