The Goldilocks Genes
Our chromosomes can get sloppy and delete or pick up genes. Researchers are starting to probe
h ow these DNA miscues affect health and longevity
From cancer biologists to geneticists, scientists are
tackling the question of how raising or lowering the
number of gene copies from the standard two affects
how we live and how soon we die. New genomic
studies show that large-scale DNA duplications and
deletions are more common than scientists imagined,
even in healthy people. Other work demonstrates
that our supply of gene copies matters in
Parkinson’s disease and cancer. The results raise
the possibility that how fast we age depends in part
on how many duplicates of certain genes we carry.
