LEXINGTON, Ky. and DURHAM, N.C., May 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, TruDiagnostic signs an exclusive license agreement to the DunedinPoAm pace of aging methylation prediction algorithm. Pace of Aging is how quickly a person's epigenetic markers are changing to hasten or slow their progression of biological aging which are associated with many predictive health outcomes.
Duke University is recognized as one of the nation's leaders in biomedical research and engineering. This exclusive license opens the door to more opportunities to validate and expand the use of this metric in advanced patient cohorts. Duke University and TruDiagnostic are currently collaborating on grant proposals to make this algorithm validated via other tissues as well.
"We are extremely excited to offer the DunedinPoAm algorithm because it allows us to separate overall biological age from the current rate of aging," said lab director, Tavis Mendez, Ph.D. "This means we can conduct individual level investigations to identify which lifestyle, medical, and other factors are best at slowing a person's age based on objective personalized data.
Ultimately, DunedinPoAm allows us to influence patient outcomes to slow aging and ultimately risk and disease. Those individuals who are aging at a rate above one biological year per chronological year are 56% more likely to die and 54% more likely to be diagnosed with a chronic disease over the next seven years. By measuring the rate of aging, we can evaluate what influences the aging rate in order to quantify the best age limiting interventions, and therefore reduce risk of negative health outcomes."
Duke professors Terrie Moffitt, Ph.D, and Avshalom Caspi, Ph.D., head a team of six who finished developing the DunedinPoAm tool this year. Building the database took the international team five decades, while they tracked biological changes in the bodies of 1037 New Zealanders who are members of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development study, a project that began with their birth in 1972. "We are now applying DunedinPoAm in 19 other large health-tracking studies. One goal is to test just how sensitively it detects when people change their lifestyles and health behaviours. We are looking at many thousands of people: different ethnic groups, age groups, and men and women, living in different countries. DunedinPoAm is the only aging measure so far that was trained on biological change, and the enthusiasm from the international teams who are participating is super exciting!" said Moffitt.
About TruDiagnostic
TruDiagnostic is a leading health data company with a focus on multiomics and insights gained from the fluid epigenome. Established in early 2020, after development and build out of its 10,000 sq ft state of the art laboratory with Illumina equipment and consultation it launched its first physician and patient test "TruAge". Today, TruDiagnostic has built a premiere epigenetic database of DNA Methylation markers and covariates which is one of the largest in the world. The company is currently involved in several clinical studies to examine the effectiveness of products that claim to offer anti-aging benefits, and research projects to create and validate other algorithms to track aging and disease.
Contacts
For TruDiagnostic LLC General Inquiries
Hannah Went
937-570-0471
Hannah@trudiagnostic.com
For TruDiagnostic LLC Licensing and Partnership Opportunities
Ryan Smith
Ryan@trudiagnostic.com
