Gene linked to youthful looks has been discovered, scientists claim
by Ian Sample Science editor from on (#1C46S)
If verified, finding could help understand how people's faces change with time, and may ultimately lead to ways of slowing the most visible effects of ageing
Those in search of the fountain of youth should not hang up their boots, but in a laboratory in the Netherlands lies what may be the answer to a more realistic mystery: why some people look younger than others of the same age.
In a study published today, scientists in Rotterdam claim for the first time to have found a gene that specifically affects how old people look. The gene came to light when researchers noticed that people who carried mutations in the gene appeared, on average, two years older than they were.