General Interest Article on Sirtris
A good example of the very diluted, delayed way in which news of progress in aging research makes its way into the mainstream from CBS News: "Dr. Westphal says we all may soon be taking a drug that just might beat the clock, a simple pill that could delay the inevitable. 'Our goal is to prevent and forestall many of the diseases that strike us as we reach 50, 60, and 70. All with one pill.' Asked if he's suggesting that it's some kind of a rejuvenation drug that would turn a 70-year-old into a 35-year-old, Westphal tells Safer, 'That might be pretty hard to do. But I think if we're on a train heading one direction, we can slow down that train. I think we can slow down these genes that control the aging process.' That quest to put death on hold began in 2003 when Westphal met David Sinclair, a biochemist at Harvard who was studying the genetic components of aging. 'Five years ago I met David. And he had shown that you could extend life span in yeast. That's pretty exciting,' Westphal recalls. Yeasts are one thing. Human beings are more complicated. So Sinclair focused on a gene present in almost all life forms: the sirtuin gene. It's normally inactive, but when it is active, Sinclair believes it triggers a survival mechanism that extends life. Convinced that something in nature could activate that gene, Sinclair randomly tested thousands of compounds and got a hit: resveratrol."
Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/25/60minutes/printable4752082.shtml