In 2003, molecular biology and genetics researchers Coleen T. Murphy, Steven A. McCarroll, Cornelia I. Bargmann, Andrew Fraser, Ravi S. Kamath, Julie Ahringer, Hao Li, and Cynthia Kenyon conducted an experiment that investigated the cellular aging in, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) nematodes. The researchers investigated the interactions between the transcription factor DAF-16 and the genes that regulate the production of an insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1-like) protein related to the development, reproduction, and aging in C. elegans. Transcription factors, like DAF-16, are proteins that regulate the transcription of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) into messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), which later determines which proteins the cell produces. The research team's experiment suggested that an increase in the activity of the DAF-16 protein decreases the transcription of the genes that regulate the production of IGF-1-like proteins, increasing lifespan in nematodes. The team published their results in the article 'Genes that act downstream of DAF-16 to influence the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans' in Nature in June 2003. By comparing the regulation of gene expression in C. elegans with similar genes and pathways in humans, Murphy's research team sought to better understand cellular function and aging in humans.

Andrew Zachary Fire is a professor at Stanford University and Nobel Laureate. Fire worked at the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Embryology in Baltimore, Maryland, with colleague Craig Mello, where they discovered that RNA molecules could be used to turn off or knock out the expression of genes. Fire and Mello called the process RNA interference (RNAi), and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2006 for their discovery.

Craig C. Mello is an American developmental biologist and Nobel Laureate, who helped discover RNA interference (RNAi). Along with his colleague Andrew Fire, he developed gene knockouts using RNAi. In 006 Mello won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contribution. Mello also contributed to developmental biology, focusing on gene regulation, cell signaling, cleavage formation, germline determination, cell migration, cell fate differentiation, and morphogenesis.