The naked mole rat ( Heterocephalus glaber ) is a small, hairless rodent native to East Africa, and famous for living an astonishingly long time, up to around 37 years, nearly 10x longer than mammals of similar size. Scientists have long suspected its remarkable longevity comes from adaptations that keep its DNA intact.

As we age, DNA damage accumulates in our cells. Normally cells repair these breaks using several molecular pathways, but errors or inefficiencies in repair make genomes unstable and lead to ageing and disease.

One molecule known to influence this process is cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS). In humans and mice, cGAS helps detect foreign DNA, such as that from viruses, and triggers immune responses. However, it also suppresses one of the body’s main DNA-repair systems, call

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