Engineering Fly Longevity
The better the tools, the easier it becomes to precisely alter the operation of complex biochemical systems. From EurekAlert!: "Receptors are proteins that transmit signals across a cell membrane. [Researchers] manufactured short proteins that blocked a receptor involved in fruit fly aging ... Flies with a blocked receptor saw their lives extended by a third, with no apparent side effects. ... [scientist] literally threw trillions of peptides at the receptor and saved the ones that stuck. ... We let the molecules themselves decide if they bind, rather than trying to design them rationally ... After multiple cycles, the researchers had a group of peptides that stuck to the receptor and not to any other protein. Fruit flies genetically altered to produce such peptides lived longer, suggesting that the peptides were interfering with the receptor's normal function. Why these particular peptides work, and why the receptor they target plays such an important role in fruit fly aging, remain the bigger and as yet unanswered questions." Precision of operation doesn't necessarily mean you immediately know what the result is going to be, or why, of course. We'll see where this goes, but it's a long road from flies to humans, littered with techniques that don't work for mammals. The real story here is the new technology platform for blocking receptors - that'll be generating progress across the board for a decade.
Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/uosc-sff060707.php