TL;DR
A computer went looking for a switch on aging and found one that worked in animals. George Church's lab at Harvard trained a machine-learning model to read how old a human skin cell is from its gene activity, then asked it which genes would make cells read younger. Its top pick, a gene called SRSF1, made old human cells behave younger in the dish, and one gene-therapy dose given to old mice stretched their median lives from 778 days to 886, about 108 more days, or 14%, the team reports. That is in mice, in a small study that still needs repeating. But it points at a new way to hunt for the body's aging controls: let AI hand scientists the levers worth pulling, including ones that may turn back a cell's age without making it forget its job. For anyone hoping to live much longer in a body that stays young, that search has to work first.
Below the line, for paid subscribers: The full story: where it stands, how we got here and what's dated next; our Odds board on 5 milestones, starting with "Another lab reports repeating the SRSF1 lifespan gain in mice by 2028"; our labeled speculation on what it adds up to; and every source.