en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Deming
1 correction found
Kenyon successfully increased the lifespan of the worm C. elegans by a factor of ten through genetic engineering
This overstates Kenyon’s worm-aging results. Her landmark C. elegans work is documented as roughly doubling lifespan, and later UCSF summaries describe extensions up to sixfold—not tenfold.
Full reasoning
The article attributes a 10× lifespan increase in C. elegans to Cynthia Kenyon, but the best primary and institutional sources do not support that number.
- Kenyon’s famous 1993 Nature paper is titled “A C. elegans mutant that lives twice as long as wild type.” Its abstract states that daf-2 mutations caused worms to live “more than twice as long as wild type.” That is about 2×, not 10×.
- UCSF’s 2011 archive about Kenyon’s TED talk likewise says she and colleagues discovered a gene that, when mutated, “doubles the lifespan” of C. elegans.
- A separate UCSF archive from 2007 says Kenyon’s lab later extended worm life “up to six times the normal span” using additional manipulations. Even that stronger later description is still well below tenfold.
So the statement is inaccurate because it turns Kenyon’s documented results into a much larger figure than the cited scientific record supports.
3 sources
- A C. elegans mutant that lives twice as long as wild type | Nature
Title: “A C. elegans mutant that lives twice as long as wild type.” Abstract: mutations in daf-2 can cause adult C. elegans to live “more than twice as long as wild type.”
- Archive: Kenyon's TED Talk: From Roundworms to Humans, in Pursuit of a Vibrant, Longer Life | UC San Francisco
UCSF says that in 1993 Kenyon and colleagues discovered a gene that, when mutated, “doubles the lifespan” of the roundworm C. elegans.
- Archive: Live Long and Prosper: A Conversation About Aging with Cynthia Kenyon | UC San Francisco
UCSF says Kenyon’s team later extended a worm’s life “up to six times the normal span,” and that daf-2 mutants live “twice as long as normal.”