Scientists commonly use baker’s yeast in studies involving aging because it is simple and one of the best understood organisms at a molecular and genetic level. Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) have created a baker’s yeast that has a lifespan 10-times that of normal baker’s yeast.

Researchers include study leader Valter Longo and other participants including Keck School of Medicine associate professor Lucio Comai, USC graduate students and members of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York.

The researchers used a calorie-restricted diet for the yeast and removed a pair of genes, RAS2 and SCH9, which promote aging in yeast and cancer in humans. Longo says, “We got a 10-fold life span extension that is, I think, the longest one that has ever been achieved in any organism.” A typical baker’s yeast lives about one week.

While the longevity extension in baker’s yeast was without apparent side effects, Longo warns that typically longevity mutations result in severe growth deficits and other health problems. This means finding drugs to extend human life will not be easy and may come with severe side effects.

Longo and his group say a more attainable goal for use of his research in humans would be to combat diseases like Werner/Bloom syndromes that prematurely age sufferers, increase cancer risk and lead to the death of the victim. To combat this sort of disease, Longo suggests that his teams research in blocking the aging pathways might be a good option for treatment in humans.

Longo told USC News, “Maybe it [treating aging pathways in humans] will do nothing, but having nothing else, I think it’s certainly a good thing to try.”

USC researchers were also in the news during 2007 for developing a new generation of retinal implants.