How do you make old mice magically transform into younger, sleek, slim and athletic mice? You feed them resveratrol.

Resveratrol is a molecular compound found in red wine. But you'd have to drink 10,000 bottles a day to get the same relative amount as these mice were fed in the study.

So now there is a company that is working on commercializing resveratrol for controlling the aging process and curing some of the diseases of aging such as diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals raised over $103 million in venture funding before their IPO of a couple of months ago. See an interesting article about their anti-aging quest in the New York Times today.

While we wait for them to come up with the magic pills, there are other ways we can work on deterring aging -- with the right diet.

Update June 2008: See an interesting article about red wine and resveratrol in the New York Times today.