Long-lived mutant yeast. Biologists have created baker's yeast capable of living to 800 in yeast years without apparent side effects. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Southern California)

Biologists have created baker's yeast capable of living to 800 in yeast years without apparent side effects.

The basic but important discovery, achieved through a combination of dietary and genetic changes, brings science closer to controlling the survival and health of the unit of all living systems: the cell.

"We're setting the foundation for reprogramming healthy life," said study leader Valter Longo of the University of Southern California.

"We got a 10-fold life span extension that is, I think, the longest one that has ever been achieved in any organism," Longo said. In 2005, the same research group reported a five-fold life span extension in the journal Cell. Normal yeast organisms live about a week.