Steve Horvath
Steve Horvath | |
|---|---|
UCLA Altos Labs |
Steve Horvath is a German–American aging researcher, geneticist, and
Background
Horvath was born in
Work on the epigenetic clock
Horvath's development of the DNA methylation based age estimation method known as epigenetic clock was featured in Nature magazine.[3] In 2011, Horvath co-authored the first article that described an age estimation method based on DNA methylation levels from saliva.[5] In 2013 Horvath published a single author article on a multi-tissue age estimation method that applies to all nucleated cells, tissues, and organs.[6][3] This discovery, known as the Horvath clock, was unexpected because cell types differ in terms of their DNA methylation patterns and age related DNA methylation changes tend to be tissue specific.[3] In his article, he demonstrated that estimated age, also referred to as DNA methylation age, has the following properties: it is close to zero for embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, it correlates with cell passage number; it gives rise to a highly heritable measure of age acceleration; and it is applicable to chimpanzees.[6] Since the Horvath clock allows one to contrast the ages of different tissues from the same individuals, it can be used to identify tissues that show evidence of increased or decreased age.[7]
Horvath co-authored the first articles demonstrating that DNA methylation age predicts life-expectancy [8][9][10] and is positively associated with obesity,[11] HIV infection,[12] Alzheimer's disease,[13] cognitive decline,[14] Parkinson's disease,[15] Huntington's disease,[16] early menopause,[17] and Werner syndrome.[18]
Genetics of aging
Horvath published the first article demonstrating that trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) is associated with strong epigenetic age acceleration effects in both blood and brain tissue.[19] Using genome-wide association studies, Horvath's team identified the first genetic markers (SNPs) that exhibit genome-wide significant associations with epigenetic aging rates[20][21] – in particular, the first genome-wide significant genetic loci associated with epigenetic aging rates in blood notably the telomerase reverse transcriptase gene (TERT) locus.[22]
As part of this work, his team uncovered a paradoxical relationship: genetic variants associated with longer leukocyte telomere length in the TERT gene paradoxically confer higher epigenetic age acceleration in blood.[22]
Work in biodemography
Horvath proposed that slower epigenetic aging rates could explain the mortality advantage of women and the Hispanic mortality paradox.[23]
Lifestyle factors and nutrition
Horvath published the first large scale study of the effect of lifestyle factors on epigenetic aging rates.[24]
These cross sectional of epigenetic aging rates in blood confirm the conventional wisdom regarding the benefits of education, eating a high plant diet with lean meats, moderate alcohol consumption, physical activity and the risks associated with metabolic syndrome.
Epigenetic clock theory of aging
Horvath and Raj proposed an epigenetic clock theory of aging[25] which views biological aging as an unintended consequence of both developmental programs and maintenance program, the molecular footprints of which give rise to DNA methylation age estimators. DNAm age is viewed as a proximal readout of a collection of innate ageing processes that conspire with other, independent root causes of aging, to the detriment of tissue function.[25]
Weighted correlation network analysis
Horvath and members of his lab developed a widely used systems biological data mining technique known as weighted correlation network analysis.[26][27][28] He published a book on weighted network analysis and genomic applications.[29]
Awards and honors
Horvath has won several awards for his work on the epigenetic clock.
- 2017 Allen Distinguished Investigator award for clock studies in vertebrates [30]
- 2019 Open Philanthropy Project award for mechanistic studies of the epigenetic clock [31]
- 2019 Schober Award for outstanding and innovative research in the field of ageing [32]
- 2022 Nathan W. Shock Award [33]
- 2022 Fellow of the American Statistical Association[34]
- 2023 WNAR Outstanding Impact Award for Epigenetic Clocks and Weighted Correlation Network Analysis [35]
References
- ^ "Meet Altos Labs, Silicon Valley's latest wild bet on living forever". 4 September 2021.
- ^ "About the Clock Foundation". 12 October 2023.
- ^ PMID 24717494.
- ^ a b "About the universities". University of California Los Angeles. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
- PMID 21731603.
- ^ PMID 24138928.
- PMID 26000617. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2015-05-25. Retrieved 2017-06-23.
- PMID 25633388.
- PMID 26678252.
- PMID 27690265.
- PMID 25313081.
- PMID 25969563.
- PMID 26684672.
- PMID 25617346.
- PMID 26655927.
- PMID 27479945.
- PMID 27457926.
- PMID 28377537.
- PMID 25678027.
- PMID 26830004.
- PMID 28516910.
- ^ PMID 29374233.
- PMID 27511193.
- PMID 28198702.
- ^ S2CID 4709691.
- S2CID 7756201. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2020-09-28. Retrieved 2017-06-23.
- PMID 17090670.
- PMID 19114008.
- ISBN 978-1-4419-8818-8 website
- ^ "The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group Names Five Allen Distinguished Investigators". Cision PR Newswire. June 15, 2017.
- ^ "Open Philanthropy award for epigenetic clock research by Steve Horvath". openphilanthropy.org. April 2019.
- ^ "2019 Schober award for Steve Horvath from UCLA". University of Halle (Saale) Germany. September 13, 2019.
- ^ NIH May 2021 Director Status Report
- ^ "ASA 2022 Fellows" (PDF). American Statistical Association. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
- ^ "IBS/WNAR Outstanding Impact Award and Lectureship". International Biometric Society.
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