ISTOCK, DUTCHSCENERYMost of us measure our age based on the day we were born. Certain factors, however, such as poor lifestyle, disease, and genetics, can rack up the so-called biological years more rapidly. Scientists have been working to develop accurate biomarkers of aging, and the “epigenetic aging clock” has emerged as one of the most effective methods.
Now, the clock has emerged from the lab and entered into the retail market. Individuals can determine their “biological age” through a direct-to-consumer (DTC) product provided by Zymo Research, a manufacturer of molecular biology research tools.
“I think the model in itself is robust and it is being used quite extensively by the scientific community,” says Veryan Codd, a molecular biologist at the University of Leicester. “[However,] I think that until we understand what the effects [of this aging marker] are and what can be done to influence it, it’s not a particularly useful measurement for the general population.”
The test is based on an epigenetic clock that was developed in 2013 by Steve Horvath, a geneticist and biostatistician at the University of California, Los ...
