An epigenetic clock controls aging
We are accustomed to treating aging as a set of things that go wrong with the body. But for more than twenty years, there has been accumulating evidence that much of the process takes place under genetic control. We have seen that signaling chemistry can make dramatic differences in life span, and t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Netherlands
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105831 |
| _version_ | 1811095363735519232 |
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| author | Mitteldorf, Joshua |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Mitteldorf, Joshua |
| author_sort | Mitteldorf, Joshua |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We are accustomed to treating aging as a set of things that go wrong with the body. But for more than twenty years, there has been accumulating evidence that much of the process takes place under genetic control. We have seen that signaling chemistry can make dramatic differences in life span, and that single molecules can significantly affect longevity. We are frequently confronted with puzzling choices the body makes which benefit neither present health nor fertility nor long-term survival. If we permit ourselves a shift of reference frame and regard aging as a programmed biological function like growth and development, then these observations fall into place and make sense. This perspective suggests that aging proceeds under control of a master clock, or several redundant clocks. If this is so, we may learn to reset the clocks with biochemical interventions and make an old body behave like a young body, including repair of many of the modes of damage that we are accustomed to regard as independent symptoms of the senescent phenotype, and for which we have assumed that the body has no remedy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:15:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/105831 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:15:55Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Springer Netherlands |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1058312022-10-02T07:23:45Z An epigenetic clock controls aging Mitteldorf, Joshua Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Mitteldorf, Joshua We are accustomed to treating aging as a set of things that go wrong with the body. But for more than twenty years, there has been accumulating evidence that much of the process takes place under genetic control. We have seen that signaling chemistry can make dramatic differences in life span, and that single molecules can significantly affect longevity. We are frequently confronted with puzzling choices the body makes which benefit neither present health nor fertility nor long-term survival. If we permit ourselves a shift of reference frame and regard aging as a programmed biological function like growth and development, then these observations fall into place and make sense. This perspective suggests that aging proceeds under control of a master clock, or several redundant clocks. If this is so, we may learn to reset the clocks with biochemical interventions and make an old body behave like a young body, including repair of many of the modes of damage that we are accustomed to regard as independent symptoms of the senescent phenotype, and for which we have assumed that the body has no remedy. 2016-12-15T18:19:32Z 2016-12-15T18:19:32Z 2015-11 2016-08-18T15:20:08Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1389-5729 1573-6768 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105831 Mitteldorf, Josh. “An Epigenetic Clock Controls Aging.” Biogerontology 17.1 (2016): 257–265. en http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10522-015-9617-5 Biogerontology Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht application/pdf Springer Netherlands Springer Netherlands |
| spellingShingle | Mitteldorf, Joshua An epigenetic clock controls aging |
| title | An epigenetic clock controls aging |
| title_full | An epigenetic clock controls aging |
| title_fullStr | An epigenetic clock controls aging |
| title_full_unstemmed | An epigenetic clock controls aging |
| title_short | An epigenetic clock controls aging |
| title_sort | epigenetic clock controls aging |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105831 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mitteldorfjoshua anepigeneticclockcontrolsaging AT mitteldorfjoshua epigeneticclockcontrolsaging |