Secrets of long life sought in DNA of the elderly (AP)

NEW YORK – George Eberhardt turned 107 last month, and scientists would love to know how he and other older folks like him made it that far. So he's going to hand over some of his DNA.

He's one of 100 centenarians taking part in a project announced Wednesday that will examine some of the oldest citizens with one of the newest scientific tools: whole-genome sequencing, the deciphering of a person's complete collection of DNA.

Scientists think DNA from very old healthy people could offer clues to how they lived so long. And that could one day lead to medicines to help the rest of us stay disease-free longer.

By the time you reach, say, 105, "it's very hard to get there without some genetic advantages," says Dr. Thomas Perls, a geriatrics expert at Boston University.

Perls is helping find centenarians for the Archon Genomics X Prize competition. The X Prize Foundation, best known for a spaceflight competition, is offering $10 million in prize money to researchers who decipher the complete DNA code from 100 people older than 100. The contest will be judged on accuracy, completeness and the speed and cost of sequencing.

The contest is a relaunch of an older competition with a new focus on centenarians, and it's the second sequencing project involving the elderly to be announced this month.

Genome pioneer J. Craig Venter says the centenarian project is just a first step in revealing the genetic secrets of a long and healthy life.

"We need 10,000 genomes, not 100, to start to understand the link between genetics, disease and wellness," said Venter, who is co-chairing the X Prize contest.

The 107-year-old Eberhardt of Chester, N.J., played and taught tennis until he was 94. He said he's participating in the X Prize project because he's interested in science and technology. It's not clear his genes will reveal much. Nobody else in his extended family reached 100, and he thinks only a couple reached 90, he said in a telephone interview.

So why does he think he lived so long? He credits 70 years of marriage to his wife, Marie. She in turn cites his "intense interest in so many things" over a lifetime, from building radios as a child to pursuing a career in electronics research.

But scientists believe there's more to it, and they want to use genome sequencing to investigate. Dr. Richard Cawthon of the University of Utah, who is seeking longevity genes by other means, says it may turn up genetic features that protect against multiple diseases or that slow the process of aging in general.

Protective features of a centenarian's DNA can even overcome less-than-ideal lifestyles, says Dr. Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. His own study of how centenarians live found that "as a group, they haven't done the right things."

Many in the group he studied were obese or overweight. Many were smokers, and few exercised or followed a vegetarian diet. His oldest participant, who died this month just short of her 110th birthday, smoked for 95 years.

"She had genes that protected her against the environment," Barzilai said. One of her sisters died at 102, and one of her brothers is 105 and still manages a hedge fund.

Earlier this month, Scripps Health of San Diego announced a different genome project involving the elderly. The Scripps Wellderly Study will receive the complete genomes of 1,000 people age 80 and older from a sequencing company.

A complete genome reveals not only genes but also other DNA that's responsible for regulating genes. It's "the full monty," showing DNA elements that are key for illness and health, says Dr. Eric Topol, who heads the Wellderly Study.

Participants in that study have an average age of 87 and range up to 108, and they've never had diabetes, heart disease or cancer, or any neurological disease.

"Why are these people Teflon-coated?" Topol asked. "Why don't they get disease?"

The ability to turn out lots of complete genomes is "the new-new thing" in trying to find out, he said.

"There's been too much emphasis on disorders per se and not enough on the people who are exceptionally healthy," to learn from their genomes, Topol said. "Now we have the powerful tools to do that."

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Online:

X Prize competition: http://genomics.xprize.org/

Wellderly Study: http://bit.ly/pHFHDj

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Malcolm Ritter can be followed at http://twitter.com/MalcolmRitter

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Rival debt plans in doubt, alternatives sought (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans and Democrats rushed to rework rival deficit reduction plans on Wednesday, but with the fate of both proposals heavily in doubt top lawmakers pursued a behind-the-scenes compromise to avert a crippling U.S. debt default.

With the deadline less than a week away, global stock markets fell sharply on growing fears that the two sides will fail to break the stalemate. That would mean the United States would not be able to borrow more money after August 2 and could run out of cash to pay all of its bills.

Even if a deal is reached to raise the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt ceiling, a budget plan that flinches from hefty cuts in the deficit may result in a downgrade of America's top-notch credit rating, which could sow financial chaos worldwide.

Against this backdrop, congressional leaders scrambled to find common ground, but complications surrounding their competing proposals could mean efforts to forge a compromise will go right down to the wire.

The prospect of a quick resolution suffered another blow when a vote on a deficit reduction plan offered by House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, was pushed back to Thursday from Wednesday amid a mutiny by some fiscal conservatives in his own party as well as stiff opposition from Democrats.

A separate plan crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, also faced a setback on Wednesday when the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposal would cut $2.2 trillion from deficits, about $500 billion less than Democrats had claimed.

Boehner rushed to revise his two-step proposal after a CBO analysis found it would cut spending by $350 billion less than the $1.2 trillion over 10 years he had claimed. Obama opposes it because it would extend borrowing authority only until early next year, risking a rerun of the debt impasse during the 2012 election campaign when the president is seeking a second term.

Amid the political brinkmanship, the two parties have been having ongoing conversations about how to break the impasse, Democratic Senator Kent Conrad said.

"One thing I'm quite confident of is we are not going to default. Leaders on both sides recognize now that that would be a disaster," Conrad said.

But weeks of acrimonious dealings may make it hard to narrow the partisan differences. Republicans control the House and President Barack Obama's Democrats control the Senate.

POTENTIAL FOR COMPROMISE

Signaling a potential for compromise, Reid said when asked if the two plans were the only options: "We can change any one of them very easily." But Reid said every Democratic senator would vote against the current Boehner proposal if it is passed by the House and goes to the Senate.

While Democrats and Republicans publicly were pushing their respective proposals, bipartisan talks quietly continued.

Senate Democratic aides said they hoped that once Boehner's plan is killed -- either by the House or Senate -- then support will grow for Reid's one-step remedy, which Obama backs.

As currently written, Reid's approach would save more than the Republican plan and would extend the debt limit beyond the November 2012 elections. "More people will turn their attention to our bill and give it a second look" and "some version" of it would be put to a vote, a Democratic aide said.

Meanwhile, the gridlock dragged global stocks down on Wednesday, particularly in Europe. Major U.S. exchanges slipped by 1 percent or more on nervousness over unfavorable company news and the faltering debt talks in Washington.

Worried investors shifted funds into traditional safe havens gold and the Swiss franc, which both rose to record highs in dollar terms.

Still, there have been no signs of panic in markets because most investors expect a deal to be struck by the deadline.

Adding to that view, Deven Sharma, president of rating agency Standard & Poor's, told a congressional committee the ratings agency does not think the United States will default on its debt. "Our analysts don't believe they would," he said.

(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Donna Smith; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Will Dunham)

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