There are many ways in which biological data can be processed via machine learning techniques to produce clocks that assess the burden of aging. Today’s open access paper draws a distinction between aging clocks, which provide information on biological age, and mortality timers, which provide information on risk of death. Aging affects everything in the body, and all aspects of physiology and cellular biochemistry undergo at least some change. So epigenetic marks on the genome, levels of transcription of various genes, circulating proteins in the bloodstream, the pattern of microbial populations in the gut microbiome, specific chemical modifications to proteins, and much more can be assessed in b…
On the Development and Use of Aging Clocks and Mortality Timers
There are many ways in which biological data can be processed via machine learning techniques to produce clocks that assess the burden of aging. Today’s open access paper draws a distinction between aging clocks, which provide information on biological age, and mortality timers, which provide information on risk of death. Aging affects everything in the body, and all aspects of physiology and cellular biochemistry undergo at least some change. So epigenetic marks on the genome, levels of transcription of various genes, circulating proteins in the bloodstream, the pattern of microbial populations in the gut microbiome, specific chemical modifications to proteins, and much more can be assessed in b…