Such potentially groundbreaking studies are only now becoming possible because of the rapid decline in the cost of sequencing. Translating an entire human genome required more than a decade of research and billions of dollars by the government's Human Genome Project, which completed the first sequence in 2003. Now, the same work can be done in days for thousands of dollars, and the price continues to decline.

A majority of seniors have at least one chronic condition, and many have multiple illnesses, such as hypertension, heart disease, cancer and diabetes, according to the U.S. Administration on Aging. Alzheimer's affects about 45 percent of Americans 85 or older, the Alzheimer's Association says.

Seeking The Switch

In healthy individuals, "you might be able to find a mechanism that is either turning something on or off in a genetic profile that may convey protection against disease," Winifred Rossi, deputy director of the National Institute on Aging's geriatrics and clinical gerontology division, said in an interview. "If you find a mechanism that does that, then you could potentially create an intervention that mimics that protection."

While it's too early to tell whether the Wellderly Project will result in successful treatments, other continuing genetic studies of elderly individuals has led to some drug developments. Her institute is also studying the genetics of healthy elderly people in several projects, including one that tries to identify families of long-agers.

Nir Barzilai, director of the Longevity Gene Project at Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, has found several mutations that seem to aid healthy living in the centenarian Ashkenazi Jewish population.

Finding Variants

"We're finding just as many variants for diseases in the centenarians as the rest of the population," said Barzilai, who is also taking advantage of advances in genetic sequencing. "They have something else that is relatively rare, that overrides or allows all those disease genes to be there."

One mutation he found affects the way the body regulates insulin-like growth factor 1, a substance involved with metabolism. Another variant controls the amount of beneficial cholesterol in their bodies.

Drugmakers have been trying to capitalize on these findings with mixed results. Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drugmaker, and Roche Holding AG, the biggest global maker of cancer drugs, abandoned development of medicines meant to raise good cholesterol based on the research because they weren't working. Merck, the second-biggest drugmaker, and Indianapolis-based Lilly are still forging ahead with their version of these therapies. High-density lipoprotein, or good cholesterol, is thought to protect against heart disease.

These efforts may be in vain, according to a study last month. The report, in the U.K. medical journal The Lancet, found that people with a genetic condition that causes high HDL have the same heart-attack risk as the general population.

Gene Strategies