We age along two clocks: a chronological clock and a biological clock. The former is just a measure of how many birthdays you have celebrated — the age on your passport or driver’s license. The latter, on the other hand, gives a picture of your true age at the biochemical level, with important implications for health and overall well-being. The two don’t always align: some people may be biologically “younger” than their chronological age would suggest, and others, older.
One of the central mechanisms of epigenetic change is called DNA methylation, which happens when chemical methyl groups are added to DNA. By attaching themselves to a section of DNA, these methyl groups act like “on” or “off” switches, governing whether genes in that section are expressed. Since these changes don’t impact the DNA sequence itself, they are technically reversible.that DNA methylation is correlated with age.
To overcome these issues, the researchers behind this new clock specifically trained their predictive model on data collected from cheek swabs. Using state-of-the-art computational techniques, they also incorporated lifestyle and health information into their model. The result? An accurate and highly reproducible cheek-swab clock that can easily be used in home settings to give people an overview of their biological age.
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