Approved Research

Connecting rejuvenation therapies to age-associated human disease indications

Lay summary

Diseases of ageing present a large unmet clinical need across the world. We will use data from the UK Biobank to study how the rate of ageing  differs between individuals, identify how the DNA variants that drive these differences act to change the molecular features of our cells (such as differences in the genes that are expressed), and how this impacts on human phenotypes, such as disease. This may help us to develop therapeutics  that are targeted to the diseases where they are most likely to be successful.

We will also use the UK Biobank data to identify individuals (whether by genetic background, biomarker levels, MRI scans, or medical record data) that are more likely to respond to a particular therapeutic approach and/or that are at greater risk of a particular disease or other phenotype. We will use the entire cohort of the UK Biobank in order to maximise our ability to detect these effects.