{"id":630788,"date":"2026-04-25T22:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T22:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/630788\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T22:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T22:12:08","slug":"a-protein-found-in-whales-could-help-humans-live-up-to-200-years-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/630788\/","title":{"rendered":"A Protein Found In Whales Could Help Humans Live Up To 200 Years: Study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists may be closing in on an important clue to extending human lifespan and it comes from one of the ocean&#8217;s largest inhabitants. Bowhead whales, known for their extraordinary longevity, can live as long as 200 years while remaining unusually resistant to disease, making them a compelling focus for researchers studying the biology of aging. Now, researchers want to know if their biology could help humans do the same.<\/p>\n<p>A new study published in the <a class=\"sp_lnk2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-025-09694-5\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">journal Nature<\/a>, led by scientists at the University of Rochester, found that the answer may lie in a protein called CIRBP &#8211; which plays a key role in repairing double-strand breaks in DNA, a type of genetic damage that can cause disease and shorten lifespan.<\/p>\n<p>What makes bowhead whales special is how much of this protein they carry. CIRBP stood out because it was present at 100-fold higher levels in bowhead whales compared to other mammals, as per a release by <a class=\"sp_lnk2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/cirbp-protein-mammalian-longevity-bowhead-whales-674682\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">University of Rochester<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The results from lab experiments were striking. When scientists added bowhead whale CIRBP to human cell cultures and fruit fly cells, DNA repair improved in both cases &#8211; and in fruit flies, it even extended their lifespan.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers also <a class=\"sp_lnk2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.urmc.rochester.edu\/news\/story\/secret-to-a-long-life\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">discovered <\/a>that lower temperatures seem to enhance the CIRBP protein. This makes sense, as bowhead whales live in freezing Arctic waters where cold naturally boosts the protein&#8217;s production.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists are now considering multiple ways to increase CIRBP levels in humans, including lifestyle changes like cold showers, though they caution more research is needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The fact that a single DNA repair protein can extend lifespan in a model organism gives researchers renewed motivation to study how improving DNA repair could lead to healthier aging in humans, as per a <a class=\"sp_lnk2\" href=\"https:\/\/sheffield.ac.uk\/biosciences\/news\/bowhead-whales-secret-long-life-may-lie-dna-repair\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">release by University of Sheffield.<\/a>\u00a0While a 200-year human lifespan is still far from reality, this discovery opens a promising new door in aging science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists may be closing in on an important clue to extending human lifespan and it comes from one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[113486,19503,64,63,305663,305665,305664,229468,190921,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-630788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-aging-research","9":"tag-anti-aging","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-bowhead-whale","13":"tag-cancer-resistance","14":"tag-cirbp-protein","15":"tag-dna-repair","16":"tag-human-longevity","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}