A study that set out to reveal the genetic factors that help people live to ages 100 and older (see Identified: Genetic signatures of exceptional longevity in humans) has been retracted.
The researchers reported 150 genetic variations that could be used to predict whether a person was genetically inclined to live to be 100, based on the genomes of over 1,000 centenarians, but geneticists noted that the control samples and the samples from centenarians were analyzed in different ways.
The authors now agree and say the reanalysis shows a new set of genetic variations so it is essentially a new study and they retracted the old one. Thank you for being awesome once again, scientific method!
Paper on genetics of longevity retracted - Heidi Ledford, Nature
