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RE: A new research paper finds that naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber) don’t have biological age like most other other organisms do! Could they be biologically immortal?

in #science7 years ago

Their telomeres are shortened during their life.

This will pretty much disprove their biological immortality, I suppose. It will still be interesting to see how long it will take before they get into any kind of genetic trouble because of these shortenings. And at this point I would not even be surprised if they had a mechanism to lengthen them again, because these animals seems to have an endless amount of tricks up their sleeves ;)

The fact their tissues recognize tumor growth quickly and either neutralize the cells or kill them is remarkable.

Yeah, I agree! I hope we are able to learn something about fighting cancer by studying this mechanism.

And thanks a lot for a very valuable comment, @kiristin! Comments like these really add a lot of value to the original post for everyone who reads them :)

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Can I just say I’m so glad I’ve followed you. Your posts really bring great science content to the Steemunnity (just made that up). I love science and would like to follow more blogs like yours.
I worked with mice for a few years in a Nutrition and Genetics lab. Not understanding why more PIs aren’t working with them. Cool stuff. Cheers to the future!

Hehe, I love the word Steemunnity! You should totally check out @steemstem and their reports for more science content. They post about the best science posts on Steemit twice a week, and these posts are usually worth reading.