In the search for the fountain of youth, a Russian scientist volunteered himself as guinea pig to find out the effect of injecting his body with a 3.5 million-year-old eternal life bacteria. The scientist, Anatoli Brouchkov, heads the Geocryology Department of Moscow State University.

The Telegraph reports that the Bacillus F bacteria was alive in the permafrost for millions of years. Since Brouchkov injected himself with the bacteria, he claims that he never had the flu in the last two years.

Bacillus F was first discovered in 2009 in Mammoth Mounter, located in Siberia’s Sakha Republic. Since its discovery, several experiments have been done using the bacteria on mice and fruit flies to tests its effect on the animal’s and insect’s fertility and longevity. The trials found that the bacteria stimulated the growth and strengthened the immune system, reports Medicaldaily.

In one experiment, old female mice injected with Bacillus F not only started to dance but also bore offspring, discloses Dr Viktor Chernayavsky, an epidemiologist at Yakutsk.

By volunteering himself to be the guinea pig, Brouchkov wants to discover how the bacteria protects versus cell damage. He says there are immortal bacteria that cannot die by protecting itself. However, human cells “are unable to protect themselves from damage, these bacteria cells are able to protect themselves.”

He believes there is no danger in what he did because the permafrost where it was found is thawing and the bacteria possibly got into the environment and reached the locals, called Yakut.

But Brouchkov admits the injection was not a proper science experiment, although he swears by its positive effect on him. Although his team had deciphered the bacteria’s DNA, they are still figuring out which genes are responsible for its longevity and which proteins protect the DNA structure from damages.

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