| Title: | Studies into healthy ageing and longevity, biomarkers and determinants |
| Lead Institution: | Leiden University Medical Centre |
| Principal investigator: | Dr Erik van den Akker |
Application 78275
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About
A multitude of research has shown that the age-related decline of our bodies occurs at very different rates across individuals. While most individuals must deal with a gradually declining health from middle-age onward, some reach the highest ages in good overall health and physical capacity. Interestingly, we and others previously observed that having a long and healthy life seems to run in families, which suggests that the capacity to age in good health is at least to some extent heritable. Much of the research within our group has been dedicated to understand the molecular mechanisms that contribute to healthy ageing in these special families, and to translate this knowledge to assess the health status in persons coming from less privileged families. Hence, with the current application, we would like to investigate how our previous findings translate to the population at large. In particular, we are interested to validate our previously established markers of healthy ageing and investigate how these track health span (the time you are healthy during your life), the accumulation of diseases during ageing, and whether these markers of healthy ageing might be sensitive to changes in lifestyle. Ultimately, our goal is to create and evaluate markers that are suitable for tracking whether you can improve your health during ageing, through improving your diet and maintaining a suitable level of physical exercise. In line with our previous research, we would like to analyze data collected by the UKB to study aspects of healthy ageing, lifespan, longevity and multi-morbidity from various perspectives. In particular, we would like to contrast data from persons coming from long-lived families versus those wo do not, using a) socio-behavioral and genetic markers, b) blood metabolome profiles as early markers of cardiometabolic disease, c) dietary intake as a determinant and of health and wellbeing at older age, d) physical behaviour and activity patterns and e) markers of the ageing immune system.1 Publication
| Pub ID | Title | Author(s) | Year | Journal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11943 | Physical activity and fiber intake beneficial for muscle mass and strength preservation during aging: A comprehensive cross-sectional study in the UK biobank cohort | Jordi Morwani-Mangnani (+5) | 2024 | Experimental Gerontology |
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health