Healthy Aging – Wellderly

In 2007, researchers at Scripps Translational Science Institute launched the Wellderly study in the hopes of unlocking the genetic secrets behind lifelong health. Genetic factors that protect against disease in genetically exceptional individuals have been successfully translated to drugs for the general population. This ongoing study has enrolled more than 1,400 people from across the country ranging in age from 80 to 105, and who have not developed any common chronic medical conditions or diseases.

Initial findings, published in 2016 in the scientific journal Cell, suggest a possible link between long-term cognitive health and protection from chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, which account for 90 percent of all deaths in the United States, and more than 75 percent of the health care costs.

Genomic data from this study has been made freely available to the scientific community through STSI’s Variant Browser.

Publications

• Whole Genome Sequencing of a Healthy Aging Cohort, Cell, April 2016

Press

• Healthy Aging May Not Require Winning the Genetic Lottery, KPBS News, April 2016
• ‘Wellderly’ have more gene variants for good cognition, study finds, San Diego Union-Tribune, April 2016
• Genetic secrets of the health elderly unveiled, Nature News, April 2016
• These Are The Genes Behind Health Aging, Time, April 2016
• Scientists search for the genes behind health aging, CBS News, April, 2016
• A Long Life is Genetically Different From a Healthy One, Buzzfeed, April 2016
• Is this the secret to the Queen’s long life? Study finds a ‘cocktail’ of genes that protect people form disease as they age, Daily Mail, April 2016
• Secrets of the ‘Wellderly’, Robert Lee Hotz, The Wall Street Journal