Human Aging Is the End-Product of Our Developmental Program

Summary: A new study reports aging may not be a result of accumulative damage to the body, but instead is the result of “design” flaws in our DNA that orchestrates the development of single cells into an adult organism.

Source: University of Birmingham

A new study published in Genome Biology has challenged the traditional view that aging is a result of the accumulation of damage to the body’s hardware, such as the molecular damage to cells caused by oxidative stress.

Instead, the study suggests that aging is primarily a result of design flaws in the software of our bodies—the DNA code that orchestrates the development of a single cell into an adult organism.

The study considers the question, why does aging happen uniformly when current models work on the assumption that we accumulate “damage” randomly? If we imagine human development as the product of a sort of computer program encoded in the DNA, the paper suggests that aging is not an accumulation of damage to the hardware, but a process driven by flaws in the software, a radical departure from damage-based theories that until now have prevailed in aging research.

The study’s authors propose a model of aging as the outcome of the developmental software program and reflected in shifting cellular information states throughout the life course. The model explains why closely related species age at radically different rates, and it explains the major genetic, dietary, and pharmacological manipulations of aging in animals.

Viewing aging as an information problem, rather than a result of damage, has important implications for the development of interventions to slow or reverse the aging process.

This shows an old man
The study’s authors propose a model of aging as the outcome of the developmental software program and reflected in shifting cellular information states throughout the life course. Image is in the public domain

Traditional anti-aging interventions targeting damage, such as those aimed at reducing oxidative stress or telomere shortening, may have limited success if aging is primarily a result of software programs.

According to the study’s authors, aging therapies will only be effective if they target the software of the body rather than the hardware. This new perspective has important implications for our understanding of aging and the development of interventions to promote healthy aging.

Professor João Pedro Magalhães from the University of Birmingham who led the research, said, “Our model is controversial as it challenges the prevailing view of aging as a result of random damage to the body’s hardware. Instead, we suggest that aging is an information problem that is driven by design flaws in our body’s software.

“As the developmental program runs early in life, it is beneficial, but its runs later in life become detrimental and drive tissue degeneration and aging phenotypes.”

About this aging and genetics research news

Author: Press Office
Source: University of Birmingham
Contact: Press Office – University of Birmingham
Image: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.
Ageing as a software design flaw” by João Pedro de Magalhães. Genome Biology


Abstract

Ageing as a software design flaw

Aging is inherent to all human beings, yet why we age remains a hotly contested topic. Most mechanistic explanations of aging posit that aging is caused by the accumulation of one or more forms of molecular damage.

Here, I propose that we age not because of inevitable damage to the hardware but rather because of intrinsic design flaws in the software, defined as the DNA code that orchestrates how a single cell develops into an adult organism.

As the developmental software runs, its sequence of events is reflected in shifting cellular epigenetic states.

Overall, I suggest that to understand aging we need to decode our software and the flow of epigenetic information throughout the life course.

Join our Newsletter
I agree to have my personal information transferred to AWeber for Neuroscience Newsletter ( more information )
Sign up to receive our recent neuroscience headlines and summaries sent to your email once a day, totally free.
We hate spam and only use your email to contact you about newsletters. You can cancel your subscription any time.
  1. Absolutely brilliant analysis. The current trend that implies we live in a simulated universe of information plays perfectly into this theory. The universe is information based at a fundamental level, thus all living beings, things, are also information based. (As above, so below) If we change the “rule set” of our programing, we change our ability to live longer. We can change the condition of the cell, but if we don’t change it’s instructions over a lifetime, we can never attain longevity at any meaningful scale. So the big question is… How can we manipulate the software program?

  2. “Software flaws”?
    But everything living on and off the planet eventually dies. Stars die, planets die. This is life.

  3. What do you mean by software, what tools are needed to decode the software and in a lay person’s mind, what are you really saying?

  4. Are they dumb. Bible already knew this… Ancient people knew this… God limiting how long we live.

  5. Decodificación del software y del flujo de información epigenetica a lo largo de la vida de individuos con un ADN adaptativo a la evolución y dispuesto a mutar para comprender el envejecimiento puede ser un proyecto muy difícil por no decir imposible de lograr.

Comments are closed.