Longevity genomics paper retracted

On July 22, 2011, a high-profile longevity genomics paper published in Science in July 2010 was retracted. The paper, ‘Genetic Signatures of Exceptional Longevity in Humans,’ was the work of Thomas Perls and Paola Sebastiani (Boston University). The initial study had been revised per editorial concerns that arose last year, but has now been retracted possibly due to issues related to the replicatability the findings.

The revised study results were presented by the team at the American Aging Association meeting in June 2011. These data featured nine single SNP associations (versus two previously), and linked 281 SNPs to signatures for exceptional longevity (versus 180 SNPs previously). The overall conclusion remained unchanged - that

centenarians, while having the same disease mutational profiles as non-centenarians, have other specific aspects to their genetic profiles which indicate a signature for exceptional longevity