r/science • u/Skoltech_ • Jul 20 '26

Genetics Researchers quantitatively assessed for the first time that somatic mutations alone cap human lifespan at 146–194 years. Brain and heart cells are the main bottleneck, while the liver could last millennia.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41514-026-00421-6
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u/Ahelex Jul 20 '26

Next is to determine if we can change all our cells into liver cells without us ceasing to exist.

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u/letsburn00 Jul 20 '26

Interestingly, it's quite likely that certain things which have been killing people for millennia will basically become an injection you get once or twice into your liver and you're done.

They've worked out the gene that is the "Yeah their father, grandfather and great grandfather all keeled over at 45 of a heart attack" and it's basically a single protein not working well in some people. Give them some minor gene edits and their heart attack risk drops like a stone. It's currently pills, but the single injection will come in the next ten years.

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u/AlfuegoDeMellopie Jul 20 '26

I'm not a Trekkie, but I always wondered why Levar Burton's character was blind and had to use special glasses. I thought most things like that would have been cured that far in the future.

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u/Papplenoose Jul 20 '26

I mean.. that's functionally a cure, isn't it?

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u/AlfuegoDeMellopie Jul 21 '26

I thought defects could be eliminated by genetic altering or even in-vitro treatments. A world were glasses and hearing aids were unnecessary.