Dateline: June 9

Tonight on SBS Dateline looks at reversing ageing whether the ability to live longer is found in your DNA.

The ability to live longer doesn’t lie in a healthy lifestyle according to Stuart Kim from the Stanford School of Medicine in California, it’s all in our genes – and those can be altered.

“Healthy living could make you live a couple of years longer… your DNA could let you live 30 years,” he tells Josh Rushing on Tuesday’s Dateline at 9.30pm on SBS ONE.

“We know that about 40% of longevity is genetic… that trumps all of the diet and exercise that you’re doing right now.”

Scientists have already extended the lives of some organisms by altering certain genes in their DNA and they want humans to be next.

Some of the answers could lie in the genes of a tiny jellyfish according to Professor Shin Kubota from Kyoto University in Japan.

“Very ancient animals like bacteria never die,” he tells Josh. “We can die, but bacteria cannot die, like the immortal jellyfish.”

This jellyfish can actually reverse the ageing process, reverting back to its original form after reaching adulthood or experiencing trauma.

“If we can figure out that secret, then maybe, just maybe, we can apply it to humans… their genes are actually not that different from our genes.”

Millions of dollars are now being poured into this growing industry in Silicon Valley in the United States.

Google recently announced a spin-off research and development company, Calico, looking into disrupting ageing.

And wealthy entrepreneurs are collaborating with some of the world’s leading scientists to try and extend healthy life.

“The ability to live indefinitely because of being youthful indefinitely, eternal youth… I think that could be perfectly possible,” says biologist Aubrey de Grey from the SENS Research Foundation.

He sees ageing as a disease in itself that must be treated and believes the first person to live to 1,000-years-old has already been born.

“This is not a pipedream any more,” he says and he’s not alone in his mission to extend life.”

9.30pm tonight on SBS ONE.