Long-lived mammals may hold clues about aging

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/11/04/long-lived-mammals-may-hold-clues-about-how-reverse-aging/Akc5DBbkRMwyMSoidkjyLP/story.html

This article talks about research being conducted by Vadim Gladyshev, a genetics researcher at Brigham and Women's Hopsital in Boston.  He is studying longevity in mammals to learn more about aging and lifespan in humans. While this type of research is not new, he wants to approach the idea differently by instead of looking at long-lived individuals in a particular species, looking at longer or shorter- lived clades of species.  He in particular is comparing numerous species of bats to one another, sequencing their genomes, and examining genes that participate in aging.  He hopes  that this method will give a better understanding than past research on what factors can increase lifespan.  He is also hoping to perform similar techniques on whales and elephants.