From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Thu Mar 23 2000 - 12:30:48 MST
Harvard Researchers have a model for Parkinson's in Drosophila.
See:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/parkinsonsflies000322.html
Now, this is good because it sets the stage for putting genes
that are involved in other pathologies of aging into flies.
There are some limits to this. For example, genes involved
in skeletal structure, joints, arthritis, etc. couldn't
be tested in a Drosophila model.
So here is a question (that I actually don't know the answer to...),
What is the shortest lived mammal? Or other short lived species
that you could use as models for some aspects of aging in humans?
I seem to recall vaguely there were some unusual animals from Australia
that had short lifespans. What about up there in Alaska, got any
seasonal species John?
This isn't just a theoretical question, I've got a conference coming
up this summer where we will be discussing a "Roadmap for Lifespan
Extension" and one of the things we want to discuss is what genomes
should be sequenced next. Short-lived organisms allow scientists
to do experiments and intervention tests more quickly.
Robert
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