Biomarkers of ageing in serum
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Discovery of biomarkers of ageing in serum samples from UKCTOCS biobank
IRAS ID
199127
Contact name
Usha Menon
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2016/02/24, UCL Data Protection Registration Number
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
By 2050 the world population aged 80 years and above will more than triple, approaching 400 million individuals. As the population ages, the global burden of disease and disability is rising. From the fifth decade of life advancing age is associated with an exponential increase in burden from many different chronic conditions. The most effective means to reduce disease burden and control costs is to delay this progression by extending years of life free of disease and disability. A key to this is addressing the problem of ageing itself.
Ageing of all living organisms consists of a set of age-dependent changes leading to loss of functional abilities required for survival and reproduction. Because mortality in humans is frequently associated with age-related diseases it is believed that ageing is a common cause of most diseases. Currently there is no consensus on the best way to determine ageing in the context of medical and other applications. Therefore it is of great importance the development of a new generation of biomarkers that are able to link changes in concentrations of biological molecules in the human body with mortality from all causes. The development of a reliable quantitative method for determining biological age will allow for the monitoring of the ageing and importantly assess the quality of therapies against age-related diseases.
The aim of this project is the discovery of biomarkers which will allow studying the rate of ageing. These could potentially be useful as a tool for efficacy assessment of anti-ageing drugs under development, dose optimization, chronic toxicity estimate, personalised therapies selection and death risk assessments. To study this longitudinal serum samples from volunteers aged 50-74 participating in the UKCTOCS trial will be used in collaboration with three technology partners: Gero, Biogazelle, Somalogic.
REC name
London - Hampstead Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/0497
Date of REC Opinion
11 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion