Dr Perls is looking for other examples of genes that might be important for longevity.

ECONOMIST: Centenarians

Some women in Dr Perls's sample were still alive (ie, they were centenarians) when the research was carried out.

ECONOMIST: Ageing

Professor Perls explained that a previous study had looked at longevity in a group of people belonging to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

BBC: Genes predict living beyond 100

Dr Perls suggests that the main determinant of both lifespan and age of menopause may be oestrogen, the principal female sex hormone.

ECONOMIST: Ageing

But that's far from universal, said Dr. Thomas Perls, an expert on aging at Boston University and director of the New England Centenarians Study.

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The research was led by Paola Sebastiani, a professor of biostatistics at Boston University, and Thomas Perls, associate professor of medicine, also at Boston University.

BBC: Genes predict living beyond 100

"It is pure science fiction to say we can change the rate of aging in an organism as complex as ours, " argues Thomas Perls, a geriatrician at Boston University Medical Center who studies centenarians.

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