The secrets to longevity of Catalan woman who died at 117: Study me, learn from me'

"Maria Branyas Morera was born on March 4, 1907, in San Francisco, less than a year after the earthquake that destroyed the city. When World War I broke out in 1914, her father died of tuberculosis on the ship bringing the family back to Spain. As a child, she witnessed the 1918 flu pandemic. During the Spanish Civil War, she worked as a nurse on the Republican front alongside her husband, a doctor."

"She witnessed World War II, the moon landing in 1968, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the turn of the millennium, and in 2020, she overcame a Covid infection. Over all those years, she lost her parents, her siblings, and even the cross that most painfully affected her her son. In 2023, she became the oldest living person on the planet."

"During the final years of her life, and until shortly before her death in August of last year, a group of scientists took several samples from her. Their results, recently published in Cell Reports Medicine, reveal the keys to her longevity. Study me, learn from me, Manel Esteller recounts Maria telling him shortly after meeting her. Head of the Cancer Epigenetics group at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute, Esteller is the senior author of this research, in which some 40 scientists participated."

Maria Branyas Morera was born on March 4, 1907, in San Francisco. Her father died of tuberculosis in 1914 while returning the family to Spain. She witnessed the 1918 flu pandemic, served as a nurse on the Republican front during the Spanish Civil War, and lived through World War II. She overcame a Covid infection in 2020 and suffered the loss of parents, siblings, and a son. She became the world's oldest living person in 2023. In her final years scientists collected multiple bodily samples to investigate biological and lifestyle contributors to her longevity; Manel Esteller led a team that analyzed those samples.

Read at english.elpais.com