{"id":17049,"date":"2019-08-15T11:33:22","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T09:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=17049"},"modified":"2024-07-25T17:23:26","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T15:23:26","slug":"epigenetic-clock-ageing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding molecular mechanisms of ageing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Researchers at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebi.ac.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">EMBL\u2019s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.babraham.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Babraham Institute<\/a> and collaborators have used the epigenetic clock to explore the molecular mechanisms that may drive ageing in humans. They found one gene, called NSD1, that seems to be closely linked to the process. This type of research could advance our understanding of ageing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are different ways of measuring an organism\u2019s age. Chronological age is a measure of how long an organism has been alive, while biological age is a measure of how well the organism is functioning on a molecular level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One useful tool for measuring biological age is the epigenetic clock, proposed first by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S1097276512008933\">Trey Ideker<\/a>, and independently by <a href=\"http:\/\/europepmc.org\/abstract\/MED\/24138928\">Steve&nbsp;Horvath<\/a> in 2013.<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"vf-box vf-box--normal vf-box-theme--primary\">\n<h2 class=\"vf-box__heading\">What is an epigenetic clock?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"vf-box__text\">An epigenetic clock is a mathematical model that predicts age by measuring DNA methylation levels in different sites across the genome. DNA methylation is a process by which methyl groups are added to the DNA molecule, which can modify the function of a gene without changing its underlying DNA sequence. DNA methylation is essential for the healthy growth and development of cells and it is affected by lifestyle and environmental factors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vf-box__text\">Epigenetic clocks can be used to estimate the biological age of a tissue, cell type or organ. By comparing &#8216;DNA methylation age&#8217; or biological age with chronological age in different tissues, scientists can gain insights into how ageing works, the factors influencing it, and how ageing is linked to cancer, obesity, Alzheimer\u2019s disease and many other conditions. <\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A promising tool<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The researchers examined different datasets \u2013 many of them publicly available \u2013 of people with developmental disorders, to see whether there were any associations between specific genes and an acceleration of biological age. They found that individuals with a mutation in gene NSD1 had an accelerated biological age according to the epigenetic clock, meaning they were ageing faster at a molecular level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe epigenetic clock is the most accurate tool available to measure the ageing process in humans,\u201d explains Daniel El\u00edas Mart\u00edn-Herranz, who recently completed his PhD at EMBL-EBI. \u201cWe wanted to \u2018peer inside\u2019 and better understand how it works. Specifically, we wanted to see if we could identify specific genes or proteins from the epigenetic machinery that accelerate or slow down the ageing process. The fact that we found one gene that, when mutated, results in a significant acceleration of biological age is very encouraging. It shows that the epigenetic clock is a promising tool for understanding ageing and that we may unravel the molecular mechanisms that control its ticking rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is a lot of potential for such studies, but it\u2019s also worth noting that they are not possible without access to relevant public datasets. We would like to thank our collaborators who made the data available to us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor Wolf Reik from the Babraham Institute agrees. \u201cFollowing on from the work with the mouse epigenetic ageing clock two years ago, this paper continues the productive collaboration between the Babraham Institute and EMBL-EBI on mammalian ageing,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to see that genes can be identified that may underlie an epigenetic ageing program and that they can make molecular sense. The gene identified here is implicated in ageing in other organisms, and in the regulation of the epigenome during the ageing process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebi.ac.uk\/about\/news\/press-releases\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"canonical nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.ebi.ac.uk\/about\/news\/press-releases\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\">EMBL-EBI News.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Understanding how ageing works at a molecular level<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17591],"tags":[862,28,189,36,39,42,1748,369],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-17049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","category-science-technology","tag-ageing","tag-bioinformatics","tag-computational-biology","tag-embl-ebi","tag-epigenetics","tag-genomics","tag-press-release","tag-thornton"],"acf":{"article_intro":"<p>Researchers use epigenetic clock to identify gene linked to ageing in humans<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"","link_url":""},{"link_description":"","link_url":""},{"link_description":"","link_url":""}],"article_sources":[{"source_description":"<p>Martin-Herranz,\u00a0<em>et al<\/em>.\u00a0<em>Genome Biology<\/em>, (published online) 14 August 2019, DOI:\u00a010.1186\/s13059-019-1753-9<\/p>\n","source_link_url":"https:\/\/genomebiology.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/s13059-019-1753-9"}],"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53","show_featured_image":false,"in_this_article":false,"youtube_url":"","mp4_url":"","video_caption":"","translations":false,"press_contact":"EMBL-EBI Generic","field_target_display":"embl","field_article_language":{"value":"english","label":"English"},"source_article":false,"article_translations":false,"languages":""},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Understanding molecular mechanisms of ageing | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EMBL-EBI researchers identify a gene linked to ageing, called NSD1, using the epigenetic clock and bioinformatics.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Understanding molecular mechanisms of ageing | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EMBL-EBI researchers identify a gene linked to ageing, called NSD1, using the epigenetic clock and bioinformatics.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-15T09:33:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-25T15:23:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/EMBL_logo_colour.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1638\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"783\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Oana Stroe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Oana Stroe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Oana Stroe\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/95d28f359cc138357c5dcf79319ef414\"},\"headline\":\"Understanding molecular mechanisms of ageing\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-15T09:33:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-25T15:23:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/\"},\"wordCount\":566,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"ageing\",\"bioinformatics\",\"computational biology\",\"embl-ebi\",\"epigenetics\",\"genomics\",\"press release\",\"thornton\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\",\"Science &amp; Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/\",\"name\":\"Understanding molecular mechanisms of ageing | EMBL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-15T09:33:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-25T15:23:26+00:00\",\"description\":\"EMBL-EBI researchers identify a gene linked to ageing, called NSD1, using the epigenetic clock and bioinformatics.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"European Molecular Biology Laboratory News\",\"description\":\"News from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"EMBL News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"European Molecular Biology Laboratory\",\"alternateName\":\"EMBL\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":144,\"caption\":\"European Molecular Biology Laboratory\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/embl\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embl_org\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/15813\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/emblmedia\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/95d28f359cc138357c5dcf79319ef414\",\"name\":\"Oana Stroe\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/105fb83bbeaf64062ef1f4608964e5163ac52f590628df2ffde6de9a0d85af80?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/105fb83bbeaf64062ef1f4608964e5163ac52f590628df2ffde6de9a0d85af80?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Oana Stroe\"},\"description\":\"Oana Stroe is a PR specialist and copywriter with experience in engineering, IT and life sciences. She now collects and shares remarkable science stories.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/author\/oana-stroe-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Understanding molecular mechanisms of ageing | EMBL","description":"EMBL-EBI researchers identify a gene linked to ageing, called NSD1, using the epigenetic clock and bioinformatics.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Understanding molecular mechanisms of ageing | EMBL","og_description":"EMBL-EBI researchers identify a gene linked to ageing, called NSD1, using the epigenetic clock and bioinformatics.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/","og_site_name":"EMBL","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/","article_published_time":"2019-08-15T09:33:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-25T15:23:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1638,"height":783,"url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/EMBL_logo_colour.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Oana Stroe","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@embl","twitter_site":"@embl","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Oana Stroe","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/"},"author":{"name":"Oana Stroe","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/95d28f359cc138357c5dcf79319ef414"},"headline":"Understanding molecular mechanisms of ageing","datePublished":"2019-08-15T09:33:22+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-25T15:23:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/"},"wordCount":566,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["ageing","bioinformatics","computational biology","embl-ebi","epigenetics","genomics","press release","thornton"],"articleSection":["Science","Science &amp; Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/","name":"Understanding molecular mechanisms of ageing | EMBL","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-08-15T09:33:22+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-25T15:23:26+00:00","description":"EMBL-EBI researchers identify a gene linked to ageing, called NSD1, using the epigenetic clock and bioinformatics.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/epigenetic-clock-ageing\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/","name":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory News","description":"News from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization"},"alternateName":"EMBL News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization","name":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory","alternateName":"EMBL","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/EMBL_logo_colour-1-300x144-1.png","width":300,"height":144,"caption":"European Molecular Biology Laboratory"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/","https:\/\/x.com\/embl","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embl_org\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/15813\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/emblmedia\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/95d28f359cc138357c5dcf79319ef414","name":"Oana Stroe","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/105fb83bbeaf64062ef1f4608964e5163ac52f590628df2ffde6de9a0d85af80?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/105fb83bbeaf64062ef1f4608964e5163ac52f590628df2ffde6de9a0d85af80?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Oana Stroe"},"description":"Oana Stroe is a PR specialist and copywriter with experience in engineering, IT and life sciences. She now collects and shares remarkable science stories.","url":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/author\/oana-stroe-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3\/"}]}},"field_target_display":"embl","field_article_language":{"value":"english","label":"English"},"fimg_url":false,"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.svg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17049"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24632,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17049\/revisions\/24632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17049"},{"taxonomy":"embl_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/embl_taxonomy?post=17049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}