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MEET THE 96-YEAR-OLD PHILLY GENETICIST WHO WANTS YOU TO KNOW ‘SUPERAGERS’ ARE
‘NOT OLD AND DECREPIT OR WHATEVER’

“SuperAgers” Family Study research effort looks at the genetics of longevity:
“We want to understand what helps people to live not only long lives, but also
healthy lives,” a researcher said.


Hope Punnett, 96, poses for a portrait outside her West Mount Airy home.
Punnett, a geneticist, is participating in a study on "superagers," people in
good health over the age of 95.Read moreTyger Williams / Staff Photographer
by Aubrey Whelan
Published Aug. 24, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET



When Hope Punnett was first recruited to participate in a study on people over
the age of 95, she didn’t think twice about signing up: “Having been in human
research, I know how hard it can be to find volunteers,” she said, laughing.



The 96-year-old is a celebrated scientist who ran the genetics lab at St.
Christopher’s Hospital for Children for decades. She still attends lectures
there on occasion. Her active social life includes membership in a Northwest
Philadelphia group for older adults, and she delights growing azaleas and
rhododendrons in the garden at her West Mount Airy home.



Besides the chance to help out fellow researchers, Punnett had another motive
for participating in the study.



“People should be aware that people my age are not old and decrepit or
whatever,” she said. “Sometimes, we forget how old we are.”





Called the “SuperAgers” Family Study, the research effort conducted by the
American Federation for Aging Research and New York’s Albert Einstein College of
Medicine aims to recruit 10,000 participants over the age of 95 — the largest
study of longevity ever, researchers say.



“We want to understand what helps people to live not only long lives, but also
healthy lives,” said Sofyia Milman, the director of human longevity studies at
Einstein’s Institute for Aging Research. “We want to look at outliers, who have
not aged like the rest of us, to see if we can understand what’s driving their
healthy longevity.”





Researchers are collecting medical histories and DNA samples from “superager”
participants — and in some cases, their children — in an effort to identify
genes that may contribute to longevity. Punnett, like other participants, sent
her DNA sample in a few months ago. (She hasn’t talked to the researchers
personally. Milman says because of the size of the study, it’s hard for
principal researchers to speak to every participant.)



Previous studies have identified some relevant genes, but Milman said progress
has been slow because they looked at small numbers of people. Now by recruiting
thousands of participants, researchers hope to identify genes that contribute
not only to a long life, but also to good health in old age.





“We can use the information we glean to create drugs and therapeutics that will
mimic the function of beneficial genes,” she said. “We want to expand the number
of healthy years for older adults.”




A LIFELONG RESEARCHER OPENS HER LIFE TO STUDY



For Punnett, the advances in genetics over the last several decades have been
“overwhelming and amazing.”



When she first began working at St. Christopher’s in 1963, physicians did not
typically categorize birth defects as inherited genetic disorders. “I learned to
make some diagnoses of different genetic conditions that [doctors] were not
necessarily aware of,” she said.





Punnett and her colleagues worked to diagnose patients at the hospital and
research genetic disorders that had not yet been identified. The work that she
considers some of her most important was on a team that discovered DiGeorge
syndrome, a chromosomal disorder that causes heart defects, intellectual
disabilities and cleft palates.



She delighted in meeting patients, taking particular pride in those she
diagnosed as babies who many years later returned to St. Christopher’s with
questions about their own children. “It was a remarkably rewarding experience,”
she said.



Punnett credits her own longevity in part to staying active — and having a
robust social life. She’s a member of the Village Movement, an organization
aimed at helping older adults age at home. “One of the important things that
comes out over and over again in the literature is being able to socialize,” she
said.



She uses Zoom to watch the medical teams making grand rounds presentations at
St. Christopher’s, and Facebook and email to keep in touch with friends and
family outside of Philadelphia.





“She’s never without activity of one kind or another,” said Jill Landau, one of
Punnett’s three daughters. “She’s not a sit-around kind of person. She generates
her own energy for a lot of things that she enjoys.”



Punnett also keeps a sprawling garden behind her home, stocked with native
flowering plants and a host of vegetables. “My father loved to garden, my
brothers love to garden — it must be a gene,” she joked.



Punnett suspects her longevity is genetic, too: Her father died at 96, and her
grandfather lived to 90. “I’ve just been very lucky,” she said.










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