Story from the mid-20th century about a biochemist who finds youth algae

Question

^{Asking on behalf of someone else who remembers a story, so responses may come with some delay ...}

I'm looking for a story (probably a short novel) from around the 1950s or 1960s (around the same time as the Quatermass series, originally thought it might have been the same author but apparently not).

It's about a woman biochemist who finds some algae that can keep people young almost forever. She sets up a very successful beauty salon and runs it for a long time, but finally someone notices that she is still as young as she was 50 years ago.

I'm aware that "protagonist with eternal youth" is practically its own trope, seen in works ranging from Nicholas Flamel to the Age of Adaline, but hopefully the biochemist/algae/salon details will be enough to narrow this down to a unique answer.

Answer 1

I think that this is probably Trouble with Lichen, a novel by John Wyndham from 1960.

The biochemist is called Diana Brackley, and while employed at a company run by Francis Saxover, she discovers that an extract from a particular type of lichen acts to retard aging. Saxover confirms the result, and the two of them refine the drug, which they term "Antigeron". The supply is very limited however, and so Saxover gives it just to his immediate family members, while Brackley opens a beauty salon to give injections to wealthy women.

As the Wikipedia summary relates:

After a customer suffers an allergic reaction to one of Diana's products, the secret of the drug begins to emerge. Diana tries to cover up the real source of the drug, since the lichen is very rare and difficult to grow, but when it is finally discovered she fakes her own death in the hope of inspiring the women of Britain to fight for the rights she tried to secure for them.

Francis realises that Diana may not really be dead, and tracks her down to a remote farm where she has succeeded in growing a small amount of the lichen. Diana plans to rejoin the world under the guise of being her own sister, and continue the work she left off.