The Epigenetic Clock – From Deep Space to Deep LearningDecember 30, 2020As the year comes to its end, our epigenetic clocks keep on ticking, and hot new DNA methylation-based studies keep rolling in. Here, we gaze into two deeply interesting studies that take us on an epigenetic journey from deep space to deep learning by reporting how space travel can influence epigenetic aging and how neural […]
Reprogramming Helps to “Turn Back Time” on the Epigenetic Clock and Restore Lost VisionDecember 14, 2020Back in the days of big hair and masses of leather, Cher wanted to “turn back time” if she could find a way! Well, get your stockings and suspenders ready and head for the docks, as her eighties “vision” may be on the cusp of coming true with the help of epigenetic reprogramming! Specifically, resear-Cher-s […]
Racing Against the Epigenetic Clock: PRDM8 and Premature AgingOctober 5, 2020Scientists are always working against the clock, and recently, a team led by Wolfgang Wagner (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) used their ever-evaporating time to explore a potential link between telomere shortening and epigenetic clock acceleration in premature-aging associated bone marrow failure syndromes and describe a new disease biomarker! Patients with premature aging and difficult-to-diagnose bone […]
Common DNA Methylation Aging Profiles Convert Dog to Human Years Better Than EverJuly 20, 2020They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but it turns out you can use new epigenomic tricks to tell you how old a dog is. The heuristic that to get a dogs age in human years, you multiply by seven is a little simplistic, and due for an update using epigenomic insights. […]
Early-Life BPA Exposure Accelerates Epigenetic Aging and Creates a Ticking Timebomb for Metabolic Disease that a Western Diet IgnitesJuly 3, 2020While we hope that any silly errors and childish pranks of our formative years don´t follow us into adulthood, it now seems that certain experiences during early development are indeed carried into adulthood without our knowledge, where an activating trigger can lead to trouble and strife! Specifically, exposure to any number of environmental stressors during […]
Disrupted LADs Drive Epigenetic Alterations in Human Early-onset AgingJune 22, 2020The “driver” represents a crucial part of a successful Formula One team, a decent score at golf, and even a well-planned bank heist (!), and working out those factors that drive the onset of various diseases and disorders may provide critical mechanistic insight and even aid the development of novel therapeutic approaches. In the early-onset […]
A Rewired Metabolism Links the Aging Epigenome to Vision LossMay 16, 2020They say hindsight is 20/20, but for those of us looking over at a lifetime of memories, things might seem a little blurrier through our aging eyes. That’s because, unlike the fine wines, delectable whiskies, and smelly cheeses that we love to catabolize, the human epigenome tends not to age very well and a wide […]
Not Aging Gracefully? Two Epigenetic Regulators May be to BlameMarch 16, 2020In the last 50 years, there has been a ~20% increase in global life expectancy but interestingly, there has not been a corresponding increase in the number of healthy years lived. Lubin Jiang and Shi-Qing Cai at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Shanghai, China) sought to understand that disparity by examining the genetic factors involved […]
Single Cell Analyses Reveal How Epigenetic Drift Makes Stem Cells Age Badly!October 28, 2019While cheese and wine (and whisky!) all get better with age, the human body fares less well! Although partaking in too many culinary delights hardly helps, studies have established the reduced number and activity of stem cells as a cause for the age-related deterioration of various tissue types. With this in mind, a talented team […]
Foretelling Future Hippocampal Transcription and Disease Risk with Early DNA Methylation ProfilesOctober 27, 2019Will it rain tomorrow? Will I ever win the lottery? Will our new paper finally be accepted!? Unfortunately, we have yet to come up with a sturdy means to predict our fates far in the future; however, new research by Hadad and colleagues now suggests that DNA methylation profiles in young cells accurately foretell changes […]
