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From legends about fountains of youth, to alchemists attempting to create elixirs of life, to Jeff Bezos paying gobs of money to stop aging, humans have always kind of been obsessed with living longer. While life expectancy has steadily increased over time, we still haven’t quite cracked exactly why some people live longer than others.
That’s why the American Federation of Aging Research (AFAR) has launched a massive study into some of the world’s oldest people to find out exactly how they just keep going. The project, dubbed the SuperAgers Initiative, aims to collect DNA via saliva samples from 10,000 participants in the U.S. who are 95-years-old or older, as well as health history information from them and their children. Once completed, it would mark the largest longevity studies ever.
The hope is that the genetic data from the super agers—a term typically used to describe anyone 80 years old or older who still maintains healthy mental and cognitive functions—might reveal a genetic reason why exactly they have lived so long.
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