Recent experiments now suggest that the answer may be found in something as simple as yeast.

Yeast is a simple, single-celled organism that has been used for centuries in baking and to make alcohol. It reproduces by dividing in two, but one yeast cell can usually only do this around 25 times. Scientists call this the ‘replicative life span’.

Scientists found that there is a protein in yeast, known as Sip2, which is key to this process. Young yeast cells contain high amounts of Sip2, but older cells have very little.

Now, scientists writing in Cell say that they have found a way to restore the ability of older yeast cells to make Sip2. In lab tests, it was found that these altered cells could divide up to 38 times instead of just 25, an increase of 50%.

But don’t get excited just yet, as scientists still need to do more tests to see if the same thing happens inside the cells of mammals.