Movement against mortality

Croatian scientist on a hunt for immortality

Croatian Times
Croatian scientist Iva Tolic-Norrelykke has identified the first potential immortal organism.

Tolic-Norrelykke, a team leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cellular Biology and Genetics in Dresden, has been researching individual cells of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe as a model system because it has a simple symmetrical cell shape, a small number of microtubules, and highly-developed genetics.

The team’s work provides the first direct in-vivo observation of self-organised dynamic dynein distributions, which, due to their intrinsic motor properties, generate regular large-scale movements in the cell.

They follow individual yeast cells during their growth and reproduction and at the end make its genealogical tree. The research shows that organisms that do not grow old most probably use different life strategies and effective regeneration.

Tolic-Norrelykke presented her research at Zagreb’s Rudjer Boskovic Institute yesterday (Tues), the daily Slobodna Dalmacija has reported.

Tolic-Norrelykke said: "Our results show that our yeast does not grow old. It does not seem realistic that a human been can be immortal, but I believe we will be able to postpone ageing within 20 years."

Her work, "Self-Organization of Dynein Motors Generates Meiotic Nuclear Oscillations," has been published in PLos Biology.

The co-author of the work, Zagreb professor Nenad Pavin, stressed they would continue research on the project with the aim of making the yeast immortal. He added they would also do research on human cells