The scientists developed a strain of mice with a mutation in a gene called p66, thought to inhibit tumor formation. Not only did they not develop cancer, the mutants lived an average of 30 percent longer than their unaltered neighbors. It’s a long way from an extra few months for a mouse to Old Testament-like life spans for humans. But, says Pier Paolo Pandolfi, a geneticist at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York who developed the mice, “This is a tremendous insight into the aging process.”
