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The indexed individual, from now on termed M116, was the world's oldest verified living person from January 17th 2023 until her passing on August 19th 2024, reaching the age of 117 years and 168 days (https://www.supercentenarian.com/records.html). She was a Caucasian woman born on March 4th 1907 in San Francisco, USA, from Spanish parents and settled in Spain since she was 8. Although centenarians are becoming more common in the demographics of human populations, the so-called supercentenarians (over 110 years old) are still a rarity. In Catalonia, the historic nation where M116 lived, the life-expectancy for women is 86 years, so she exceeded the average by more than 30 years (https://www.idescat.cat). In a similar manner to premature aging syndromes, such as Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria and Werner syndrome, which can provide relevant clues about the mechanisms of aging, the study of supercentenarians might also shed light on the pathways involved in lifespan. To unfold the biological properties exhibited by such a remarkable human being, we developed a comprehensive multiomics analysis of her genomic, transcriptomic, metabolomic, proteomic, microbiomic and epigenomic landscapes in different tissues, comparing the results with those observed in non-supercentenarian populations. The picture that emerges from our study shows that extremely advanced age and poor health are not intrinsically linked and that both processes can be distinguished and dissected at the molecular level.
Competing Interest Statement
Dr. Esteller declares past grants from Ferrer International and Incyte and personal fees from Quimatryx and Eucerin, outside the submitted work.