Bowhead Whales Live Long Lives. Do They Hold the Key to Human Longevity?

A cold-activated gene that helps the mammals repair their DNA may also help humans live longer

Sara Hashemi | Daily Correspondent

October 30, 2025

Share

Copy linkEmailSMSFacebookXRedditLinkedInBlueskyPrint

Add as preferred source

With a lifespan of over 200 years, bowhead whales are remarkably resistant to age-related illnesses like cancer. Now, a new study has uncovered how these 80-ton mammals can survive for so long. The answer could help humans, too.

In a study published this week in the journal Nature, researchers found that the key to the whales’ lifespans is a cold-activated protein called CIRBP. This protein can repair damaged DNA, and bowhead whales have large amounts of it.

“Everybody knows the bowhead whale is extremely long lived, but nobody knew why,” Zhiyong Mao, a molecular biologist at Tongji University in China who was not involved in the study but previously worked with the authors, tells Nature. “This tells us that tackling DNA repair to improve genome stability is a very effective strategy to confer this extreme longevity.”

To conduct their study, the researchers first had to get their hands on bowhead whale cells. To do that, the scientists asked Inupiat hunters, who are allowed to hunt the animals, for permission to take a few tissue samples. Usually, scientists would freeze samples for travel, but that wasn’t an option this time, reports Carl Zimmer for the New York Times.

“If you freeze them, that’s it. The cells die,” Andrei Seluanov, a study co-author and biologist at the University of Rochester, says to the outlet. Instead of freezing the tissue, members of the research team placed it in a cooler to fly back to Rochester as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, the samples survived the journey, and the researchers were able to experiment on the cells. At first, the scientists hypothesized that whales may need more “oncogenic hits”—a genetic mutation that turns a normal gene into a cancer-causing gene—than humans to develop cancer. Instead, they found that whale cells are less likely to accumulate oncogenic hits in the first place, says Vera Gorbunova, a study co-author and biologist at the University of Rochester, in a statement. That’s because the CIRPB helps repair DNA.

When the researchers grew human cells with whale CIRPB genes, DNA repair was improved. When they did the same thing to fruit fly cells, they became more resistant to mutation-causing radiation and their lifespan was even extended.

The researchers are now conducting experiments with boosting CIRBP genes in mice and testing their longevity. They’re also considering different ways they can boost CIRBP production in humans. One option could be cold exposure, they say: The study revealed that cells make more of the protein in lower temperatures. Perhaps lifestyle changes like taking cold showers might help boost human CIRBP production, they suggest in the statement.

“We need to see if brief cold exposure is enough, but we’ll be looking at pharmacological ways to achieve this, too,” Gorbunova explains to Ian Sample at the Guardian. “Not everyone wants to do cold swims.”

Though there are plenty of unanswered questions about the whale and the properties of CIRPB genes, the research opens up exciting avenues for improving human health.

“This is a really exciting area that has come really far, really fast,” says Peter Sudmant, a geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley who was not involved in the work, to the Times. “Nature’s a beautiful experiment from which we can get all these really cool clues for new drugs and therapeutics.”

“The most exciting take-home message here is that there is room for improvement,” adds Gorbunova to Nature. “We can make our DNA repair better.”

Sara Hashemi | Read More

Sara Hashemi is a science writer and fact-checker currently based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Sierra, The Body, Maisonneuve magazine and more.