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Points to consider in a biological clock

Biological clocks should make sure they're using 'causes' and not 'effects' of ageing

21-Dec-2020

Key points from article :

Ageing clocks = algorithms that compute biological age from a set of measurable markers.

Allow us to quickly evaluate the effects on ageing of an intervention.

Ageing is an epigenetic life program.

Methylation is just one among many epigenetic mechanisms - proteome is the net result of all of them.

Proteomic clock might be a more reliable surrogate for age in clinical experiments.

However, methylation clocks have a 6-year head start.

J&J used an algorithm on subsets of data to different clocks & chose those that perform best.

Elysium Index is an advanced methylation clock claimed to be more accurate than any so far.

DeepMAge is another new methylation clock with forensic applications.

May someday be the basis for more accurate predictions of individual life expectancy.

Ideal biological clock should be created with two techniques.

Trained on historic samples where mortality data is available.

Components should be chosen “by hand” to assure all are upstream causes of ageing.

Mentioned in this article:

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Elysium Health

A company focused on research and development based on new scientific findings

Johnson & Johnson

Largest healthcare company that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods

Topics mentioned on this page:
Biological Age