
Biomarkers and ageing: The clock-watcher - moyix
http://www.nature.com/news/biomarkers-and-ageing-the-clock-watcher-1.15014
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danieltillett
This is an amazing result. I can understand why he had so much problems in
getting this published - it really does sound too good to be true.

If it does hold up (and it looks pretty good so far) this truly is a nobel
prize winning discovery. What having a good age clock of this accuracy allows
is the practicable development of age slowing pharmaceuticals that can be
shown to work in humans. This is exactly the sort of biotech area that YC
should be supporting.

Here is the original paper
[http://genomebiology.com/2013/14/10/R115](http://genomebiology.com/2013/14/10/R115)

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danieltillett
For those without background in genetics the FAQ page of the paper author
(Steve Horvath) is worth readings as it is a bit easier to understand than the
main paper [0]. For those that think this is still tl;dr he has posted the
following summary there:

What is new in the article? Where is the beef?

The epigenetic clock is the first age prediction method based on DNAm levels
that accurately predicts age in more than one tissue or fluid. As a matter of
fact, it works in the vast majority of tissues/fluids/organs. It is arguably
the first accurate measure of age that allows one to compare the ages of
different parts of the human body. Researchers who develop genomic biomarkers
will appreciate its astonishing accuracy, the fact that it works across two
Illumina array platforms and that it is remarkably robust to batch effects.
The epigenetic clock yields many interesting insights. Here is a top 10 list:

1) stem cells and iPS cells are perfectly young,

2) the epigenetic clock works in chimpanzees,

3) age acceleration effects (measured by the clock) are highly heritable,

4) normal female breast tissue (adjacent to tumor) exhibits positive age
acceleration effects while heart tissue appears younger,

5) cell passaging increases DNAm age,

6) the ticking rate of the epigenetic clock is fastest during development,

7) tumor morphology does not relate to age acceleration,

8) there is a weak inverse relationship between the number of somatic
mutations and age acceleration in many cancer types,

9) mutations in steroid receptors are associated with lower age acceleration
effects in breast cancer tissue,

10) TP53 mutation status relates to age acceleration.

The big picture: Most (but certainly not all) prior articles propose that age
effects on DNA methylation levels represent noise or epigenetic drift, see for
example the excellent recent article by A. Teschendorff et al (2013). Hum Mol
Genet. PMID: 23918660. While epigenetic drift may explain age related changes
for most CpGs, Horvath (2013) presents compelling data that the epigenetic
clock relates to a purposeful biological process. Further, it proposes the
epigenomic maintenance system (EMS) model of DNAm age.

[0]
[http://labs.genetics.ucla.edu/horvath/htdocs/dnamage/faq.htm](http://labs.genetics.ucla.edu/horvath/htdocs/dnamage/faq.htm)

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untilHellbanned
I like how this paper is a major breakthrough and is not published in Nature
but is reported on in Nature. Hopefully Prof. Horvath will get the recognition
he deserves.

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coldcode
Fascinating work. Makes me wish I had gotten my PhD when I had the chance so I
could work on stuff like this.

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cliveowen
This man is pure genius.

