Veritas Is Studying the DNA of People Who Live to 110, Looking for Clues to Longevity

Veritas Genetics is among a handful of emerging companies providing the tools for humans to map their genome at a price, $1,000 each. But in addition to selling kits to consumers who want to dive deep into their biological code, Veritas is doing research into people to try and understand how and why extraordinary individuals are different. One of the company's research efforts, spearheaded by Preston Estep, Veritas' co-founder and chief scientific officer, involves the study of people who live for more than a hundred years, reports CNBC.com . As their contemporaries have succumbed to cancer, heart attacks, and a myriad of other diseases, these folks are still going. Estep wants to sequence their DNA to uncover what they are doing right. Estep has a few theories about what he might find, based on his previous research. Diets that involve a lot of fresh fruit and fish are clearly a factor, given the parts of the world where these people tend to reside. He says that longevity tends to be the result of both genetics and environment.