LONGEVITY UPDATE: Longevity Gene Debate Opens A Trans-Atlantic Debate. “A trans-Atlantic dispute has opened up between two camps of researchers pursuing a gene that could lead to drugs that enhance longevity. British scientists say the longevity gene is ‘nearing the end of its life,’ but the Americans whose work is under attack say the approach remains as promising as ever. The dispute concerns genes that make sirtuins, proteins involved in controlling cells’ metabolism. Because of their metabolic role, the sirtuins may mediate the 40-percent-longer life enjoyed by laboratory rats and mice put on a very low-calorie diet. . . . Scientists not involved in the dispute say that sirtuins remain a field of vast interest, even if their relationship to longevity now seems considerably more complex than originally suggested.”