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Long-lived bats appear to combine powerful immune defenses with unusual strategies for eliminating damaged cells, potentially helping them avoid cancer and disease for decades. Researchers hope these genetic tricks could eventually reveal new ways to protect human health during aging.

Long-lived bats may reveal genetic secrets for fighting cancer, resisting disease, and staying healthier for longer.

Some of the best clues to living a long, healthy life may be hidden in the DNA of bats, mammals that can survive for remarkably long periods relative to their body size.

The idea fascinated Juan Manuel Vazquez while he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. At the time, however, there was little published genomic information about bats that could help answer questions about longevity. After becoming a UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow in 2020, he began searching across the Western U.S. for bat species that could provide tissue samples for DNA sequencing.

With help from Berkeley undergraduates, Vazquez traveled throughout the region, setting up mist nets over streams, ponds and rivers at night. The team captured bats, collected small biopsy samples and released the animals. Much of the work focused on the genus Myotis , which includes some species with exceptionally long lifespans. One Brandt's myotis, Myotis brandtii , was banded in Europe and then recaptured 50 years later.

Bat Genomes Reveal a Longevity Connection

In a new study published in Nature , Vazquez and his colleagues present the first analysis of eight Myotis genomes. Their results point to a strong connection between lifespan and immune function. The longer-lived bats had higher levels of genes associated with fighting cancer.