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Ageing: Much ado about ageing

Nature volume 464, pages 480–481 (2010)Cite this article

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Questions about a laboratory assay are making Sirtris, a high-profile biotechnology company, the talking point of the ageing field. Heidi Ledford investigates.

Konrad Howitz wasn't looking for a fountain of youth. As director of biochemistry at BIOMOL International in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, Howitz wanted to add new molecular assays to the company's catalogue. A protein called a sirtuin had recently been shown to lengthen lifespan in yeast1, and Howitz was developing methods to measure the activity of one of its mammalian forms, called SIRT1.

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Authors
  1. Heidi Ledford
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Additional information

See Editorial, page 465 , and Ageing Insight, page 503 .

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Web Focus: Determining Lifespan

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Sirtris Pharmaceuticals

National Institute on Ageing

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Ledford, H. Ageing: Much ado about ageing. Nature 464, 480–481 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/464480a

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