Cyteir Therapeutics, which develops novel ways to fight - David A. Sinclair

If you've had your genome analyzed, you can check if you have any of the known variations of FOXO3 that are associated with a long life.40 For example, having a C instead of a T variant at position rs2764264 is associated with longer life. Two of our children, Alex and Natalie, inherited two Cs at this position, one from Sandra and one from me, so all other genes being equal, and as long as they don't live terribly negative lifestyles, they should have greater odds of reaching age 95 than I do, with my one C and one T, and substantially greater than someone with two Ts.

The other test of age is the sitting-rising test (SRT). Sit on the floor, barefooted, with legs crossed. Lean forward quickly and see if you can get up in one move. A young person can. A middle-aged person typically needs to push off with one of their hands. An elderly person often needs to get onto one knee. A study of people 51 to 80 years found that 157 out of 159 people who passed away in 75 months had received less than perfect SRT scores.

In animal studies, the key to engaging the sirtuin program appears to be keeping things on the razor's edge through calorie restriction — just enough food to function in healthy ways and no more. This makes sense. It engages the survival circuit, telling longevity genes to do what they have been doing since primordial times: boost cellular defenses, keep organisms alive during times of adversity, ward off disease and deterioration, minimize epigenetic change, and slow down aging.