Ageless girl may hold key to ageing

Brooke(left), 17yrs and sister Carly(right) 14yrs.

American scientists are keenly studying the DNA of a 17-year-old girl who physically and behaviourally is similar to a baby. She doesn't grow with time.

Brooke Greenberg - from Reisterstown, Maryland - is about 30 inches tall and weighs 16 pounds. Her mental age is that of a 9 months old baby. Her condition has been recognized as Syndrome X and her being frozen in age is expected to bring new insights for scientist handling ageing process.

“We think that Brooke’s condition presents us with a unique opportunity to understand the process of ageing,” said Richard Walker, a professor at the University of South Florida School of Medicine, who is leading the research team.

“We think that she has a mutation in the genes that control her ageing and development so that she appears to have been frozen in time.

“If we can compare her genome to the normal version then we might be able to find those genes and see exactly what they do and how to control them.”

It follows a series of scientific breakthroughs showing that the life span of many animals can be dramatically extended by making minute changes in single genes.