Scientists Believe Hibernation Genes Could Help Humans

Could hibernation be the key to a fitter life? When you read accounts of what happens to bears during the winter — it involves burning significant amounts of fat and potentially building up lean muscle tissue — it isn’t hard to see the appeal. Would I spend weeks asleep if I woke up significantly fitter? Probably. That said, humans don’t hibernate or experience torpor, a similar condition, so this is a moot point — except that some scientists believe there are genetic lessons that can be learned from hibernation and applied to human beings.

It’s led one researcher to use the word “superpowers,” in fact. (“[B]iometrically important superpowers,” to be precise.) As Christoph Schwaiger at LiveScience reports, a study headed by the University of Utah’s Christopher Gregg explored how the bodies of hibernating animals do things like protecting the nervous system and change their body’s relationship to insulin. (Gregg’s comments to LiveScience are the source of the “superpowers” quote.)

The paper written by Gregg and his colleagues was published last week in the journal Science, and involves using CRISPR technology to isolate and modify genes in mice. The authors write that these genetic alterations “[affected] metabolism, torpor, obesogenesis, and foraging in distinct ways.” As Gregg told Live Science, there were also some unexpected discoveries, including the way some of these genetic changes affected male and female mice in different ways.

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These findings raise big questions, chief among them whether any of these discoveries can be applied to humans. University of Alaska Fairbanks biologist Kelly Drew told Live Science that “uncovering these fundamental mechanisms in a tractable model like the mouse is an invaluable stepping stone for future research.”

This is not the only recent study that has explored human biology and hibernation. A paper published in the journal L’Anthropologie in 2020 explored the possibility that human ancestors experienced hibernation or a state similar to it. Perhaps the idea that contemporary humans could experience something akin to a deep sleep with accompanying weight loss isn’t that far-fetched.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…