An Age of Metabolomics

Obtaining enormous amounts of data on the human metabolome now costs little. Databases of metabolomic data available for analysis have become vast, and continue to grow. Productive analysis trails far behind the production of data, unfortunately, as is true for all of the omics technologies. In this paper, researchers discuss the present state of metabolomic knowledge in the context of aging, and the path forward to producing useful understanding from this deluge of human data, contributing perhaps to the better development of treatments for aging. Aging is a fundamental part of the human experience, and it has long been understood to be a crucial component of health and disease. Population estimates of mortality fundamentally incorporate and adjust for age, which is widely considered the most important predictor of mortality. Defining the biology that drives aging is challenging, but theories of aging have coalesced around several key hallmarks, ranging from cellular senescence and stem cell exhaustion to mitochondrial, proteostasis, and genomic dysfunction. As the world's population ages, with one in six expected to be 60 or older by the end of 2030, understanding these physiological pathways and how to intervene in them will be critical to the prevention and management of the major drivers of morbidity and mortality. In recent decades, technological advancements have opened up new possibilities for obtaining molecular data at a population scale. One of thes...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs