A new model organism for aging research: The short-lived African killifish
Thursday, February 12, 2015 - 12:00
in Biology & Nature
Studying aging and its associated diseases has been challenging because existing vertebrate models (e.g., mice) are relatively long lived, while short-lived invertebrate species (e.g., yeast and worms) lack key features present in humans. Stanford University scientists have found a new middle ground with the development of a genome-editing toolkit to study aging in the naturally short-lived African turquoise killifish. The investigators hope these fish will be a valuable new model for understanding, preventing, and treating the diseases of old age. They present their work in the February 12 issue of Cell.