Inhibiting the protein known as Sun1 helps prolong the lives of mice with the rare genetic condition known as premature aging syndrome, researchers in Singapore, Taiwan and the U.S. have determined. Typical lab mice live about two years, but a mutant mouse with the condition lives about 41 days, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency story covering the research. Researchers inactivated the protein in the mutant mice and then reduced its overall levels, boosting their life span to about 104 days. Those mice also developed some improvement in cardiovascular and bone problems that arise from premature aging syndrome, according to the report. Details are published in the journal Cell. Story