I used to work in genomics. I think the quest to have a universal epigenetic measure of ageing will end up in a dead end.
Ageing is relative to a starting point and the variability between people in terms of phenotype is huge.
By way of analogy, would it be possible to come up with a universal measure of ageing for cars? Cars are a complex system made of thousands of components, each of which can age differently over time. Each car make and model will age in a different way. Some of the components even slightly improve in performance over time as they “break in”.
The best way to measure epigenetic ageing is relative to a starting point. There are few studies that follow the same people over time (longitudinal) because it’s difficult and expensive to pull off. We’ll eventually get there though.
Ageing is relative to a starting point and the variability between people in terms of phenotype is huge.
By way of analogy, would it be possible to come up with a universal measure of ageing for cars? Cars are a complex system made of thousands of components, each of which can age differently over time. Each car make and model will age in a different way. Some of the components even slightly improve in performance over time as they “break in”.
The best way to measure epigenetic ageing is relative to a starting point. There are few studies that follow the same people over time (longitudinal) because it’s difficult and expensive to pull off. We’ll eventually get there though.