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When Guarente's team deleted the sir2 gene from the yeast and then restricted calories, the diet no longer lengthened life span.
FORBES: Researchers are unlocking the mysteries of aging.
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Guarente's yeast lived longer when they were given less food, and the underlying mechanism seemed to be that starvation tripped SIR2.
FORBES: Starvation--And Long Life--In A Pill?
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This emerged in the lab of MIT biologist Leonard Guarente, whose team spent years counting thousands of yeast cells under a microscope.
FORBES: Researchers are unlocking the mysteries of aging.
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Guarente feels that drugs that target SIRT1 might slow aging and have wide effects on other, more testable diseases, such as cancer and heart disease.
FORBES: Starvation--And Long Life--In A Pill?
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Almost a decade ago, Leonard Guarente at Massachusetts Institute of Technology found a gene called SIR2 in brewer's yeast that, when mutated, seemed to extend the yeast's life.
FORBES: Starvation--And Long Life--In A Pill?
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David Sinclair, who worked as a postdoc in Guarente's lab in the late 1990s, took up the challenge after establishing his own rival lab at Harvard Medical School in 1999.
FORBES: Researchers are unlocking the mysteries of aging.
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Guarente and Kenyon are among the co-founders of Elixir Pharmaceuticals , a startup that hopes to turn its work into medicines to slow aging and fight a litany of diseases from cancer to heart disease and diabetes.
FORBES: Starvation--And Long Life--In A Pill?
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Guarente sees even more potential.
FORBES: Starvation--And Long Life--In A Pill?