Medical researchers are learning a great deal about the age-related degeneration of human biochemistry by looking at the extreme edge cases and malfunctions - such as Li-Fraumeni syndrome in the case of increased cancer risk with advancing age: ''Li-Fraumeni was associated with inheritance of a mutated form of the p53 tumor suppressor gene, but we ...

EurekAlert! notes progress towards developing cancer therapies from past years of investigating the p53 gene: ''p53 has long been known to play a critical role in the development of many tumors - it is mutated in more than 50 percent of human cancers. Researchers have identified a few compounds that restore p53 function, but until now, it has not ...