Supercentenarian study reveals aging and youth coexisting at 117 — SkimNews
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- Manel Esteller and a team at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute published in Cell Reports Medicine what they describe as the most comprehensive multi-omic analysis of a supercentenarian, examining Maria Branyas across genomic, proteomic, epigenomic, metabolomic, and microbiomic layers.
- Branyas's biology showed a "fascinating duality": very short telomeres, a pro-inflammatory immune profile, and aged B lymphocytes coexisted with neuroprotective and cardioprotective genetic features, genuinely low inflammatory levels, a gut microbiome dominated by beneficial bifidobacteria, and an epigenetic age younger than her 117+ chronological years.
- Because Branyas avoided major disease, researchers say this is the first study of a supercentenarian to clearly separate the biology of aging from the effects of illness.
- Researchers linked the findings to blood cancers, noting that aging of the blood-forming system is closely associated with greater risk of leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes.
- The team cited a healthy diet, a diverse social network, and the absence of toxic habits as factors potentially relevant to Branyas's exceptional longevity, while cautioning it remains too early to connect specific biology to specific behaviors.
- The study was framed against evidence that human life expectancy may be plateauing in developed countries, positioning aging itself — not just disease — as a candidate therapeutic target, with epigenetic therapies and senolytic drugs already being explored in oncology as potential tools.
Why it matters: This is the most detailed biological portrait yet of a person who lived past 117, establishing that extreme longevity can simultaneously involve heavy aging damage and strong protective biology rather than uniformly slowed aging. For longevity researchers and hematologists studying leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes, Branyas offers a rare dataset where aging can be examined without disease as a confounding variable.
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