Studies show that this test can predict mortality risk

Tally Health, a New York-based biotechnology company, has launched operations cheek age, an epigenetic clock using DNA data collected from cheek cells. Last month, researchers from Tally Health published their research in a journal The limits of aging. According to their findings, CheekAge can accurately predict mortality risk. CheekAge predicts age based on methylation traces in DNA.

The researchers used cheek swabs from participants aged 18 to 93. They paired patterns DNA methylation within the cheek cells to offer an overall health rating that also takes under consideration aspects equivalent to body mass index (BMI), stress levels and other lifestyle aspects.

“The fact that our epigenetic clock trained on cheek cells predicts mortality when measuring the methylome in blood cells suggests that there are common mortality signals in tissues.” Dr. Maxim Shokhirev, head of computational biology and data science at Tally Health in New York, said in an interview Neurology news.

“This means that a simple, non-invasive cheek swab may be a valuable alternative in studying and tracking the biology of aging,” Shokhirev, co-author of the study, told the web site.

Shokhirev and his team also used data With Lothian birth cohorts (LBC), a long-term research program that follows participants’ aging from childhood to maturity. At LBC, researchers took blood samples from 15,000 people every three years and tracked changes in DNA methylation.

ABOUTThe primary goal of the LBC study was to link differences in cognitive aging to lifestyle aspects and biomedical, genetic, and brain imaging data. Researchers are testinged CheekAge technology using blood samples from the LBC test.

“Using cheek cells to predict aging and related health problems is fascinating and will be a promising method. This is especially intriguing since it is less invasive than traditional blood tests, potentially making it a better option for routine health checks and health maintenance,” said Dr. Brittany Ferri, an occupational therapist with the National Council on Aging Medical news today.