The Long Life Family Study

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The LEF News reprints a piece on the Long Life Family Study, soon to start and seeking participants: "Over the next several years, hundreds of families from Pittsburgh, Boston, New York and Denmark with multiple members alive and functioning in their 80s, 90s or beyond will be interviewed and have blood samples drawn. Researchers say it may be the most extensive aging study yet, with hopes of uncovering not a fountain of youth, but a sea of information on what contributes to healthy aging. ... Given that these individuals pan out to be models of successful aging and have abilities to escape or delay age-related disease, or escape or delay disabilities, we want to find out how they do that. And we don't believe it's because of any one single factor." Successful aging is something of a contradiction in terms, but these studies serve a useful purpose: it is still more efficient to find starting points for biochemical investigations into longevity and metabolism this way.

Link: http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=3950&Section=AGING