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DNA Sequenced of Woman Who Lived To 115
chrb writes "The DNA of W115 — an anonymous woman who lived to the age of 115 years and left her body to science — has been sequenced. Despite her old age, W115 showed no signs of dementia or heart disease, and tests at the age of 113 showed she had the mental abilities of a woman aged 60-75 years. Dr. Henne Holstege of the Department of Clinical Genetics at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam has suggested W115 had rare genetic changes in her DNA which protected against Alzheimer's and other late-life diseases."
She was my great aunt : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrikje_van_Andel-Schipper
She donated her body already at the age of 80-85. To be talking in /. terms, she open sourced her body. She gave it to science or in her words "Let students and doctors cut me into little pieces and let those youngsters find out why I became this old." She had yearly meetings with the doctor who told her the whole procedure of what would happen when she died.
That was also the reason some nurse was with her, so when the moment came, they would not loose any valuable time.
This is not disrespectful. This was her wish for more then 20 years.
The reason she is "anonymous" is because some idiots were claiming to be speaking of her behalf and said that a doctor could not bring out personal information regardless of the fact that this was the specific demand of the patient. Let the knowledge be spread. And knowing her, that would include her name as well.
As her closest family (my dad, born 1930 and still healthy) and myself are living in other countries, we did not know of this trouble. Otherwise at least I would have intervened.
I also like to donate my blood (or just DNA if it is a nice looking nurse) for the same research, but I am afraid it might end up with some sort of Monsanto. Scary that I am afraid of a company stealing my DNA when I want to give it to science.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Because if this is done in the germ line, it will end in a social catastrophy.
What will happen when a group of people can say with reason that they are better humans then the rest of us? Today, it is possible to climb the social ladder because if you raise your kid right, he might not be so different from the kid of a millionaire, but when the millionaire kids are more intelligent and healthy by default, how is anyone ever going to go up in society?
Imagine the riots that will happen once 90% of the population has no chance at getting a good job or ever having a family member get a good job, not because they do not work hard, but because they are "lesser" humans than the 10% on top.
The only way this technology can ever be used for enhancement without creating a dystopia is if the state intervenes to raise the bottom along with the top, but that is also difficult due to the costs, and the fact the rich will be the only ones who can keep up with the newer and newer "models" of DNA enhacement.
Her mother became 99 and 10 months. A brother and sister also became pretty old. Not sure what happened to another sister. My father is in his 90-ies and behaves like a 65 year old. We are directly related to her. She was my grand-fathers sister.
For that reason I have contacted the doctor to ask him how I (and my father agreed to do the same) could be able to help. e.g. by giving some blood so they can see after we die if there was anything there. She did not have any children herself, so for now all we know is that she might have been the only person with that part of DNA.
Not sure if my sister (and her kids) is willing to do the same. Or my nephews. We all live in different countries around the world and some I have no way of contacting.
She also was under investigation for about 20 years, so they already knew a lot about her lifestyle. It is not like they dropped a body on the doorstep and they had to go from there.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
"She did not have any children herself"
I think I discovered the reason she lived so long! ;)