Anatoli Brouchkov, head of the Geocryology Department at Moscow State University, says he has not had flu for two years following his injection.
The bacteria,named Bacillus F, has remained alive in permafrost for millions of years.
“These bacteria get into the environment, into the water, so the local population, the Yakut people, in fact, for a long time are getting these cells with water, and even seem to live longer than some other nations,” Dr. Brouchkov says.
According to Brouchkov, Bacillus F has a mechanism that has enabled it to survive for so long beneath the ice, and that the same mechanism could be used to extend human life, too perhaps, one day, forever. In tests, Brouchkov says the bacteria allowed female mice to reproduce at ages far older than typical mice. Fruit flies, he told the Siberian Times, also experienced a “positive impact” from exposure to the bacteria.
The problem is, he still doesn’t know what, exactly, that mechanism is.
Dr Brouchkov said: 'We want to understand the mechanisms of the protection of genome, the functioning of the genes.
'The key question is what provides the vitality of this bacteria, but it is as complicated as which human genes are responsible for cancer and how to cure it. The scale and complicity of the question are nearly the same.'
He said the permafrost where the bacteria was found is estimated to be around 3.5 million years old.
'This bacteria was isolated from the outer world in ice, so we are quite sure that this bacteria was kept in the permafrost for such a long time.
'Yet we are still working to prove this.'
