A gene variant that arose decades ago in an Amish group seems to be enough to make people live ten years longer, as well as making them less likely to develop diabetes. The gene is called SERPINE1, and is known to make a protein that promotes ageing, known as PAI-1.

Douglas Vaughan of Northwestern University, Chicago, and his team have now studied the gene in 177 members of the Old Order Amish community in Berne, Indiana, to find out. Of these, 43 people carried at least one copy of the gene variant.