Abstract

In a medical context, replacement of chronological age with ‘biological age’ could revolutionize medical screening with the aim of postponing chronic and costly diseases of old-age. OMIC technologies, particularly RNA , are yielding promising medical diagnostics and prognostics guiding cancer treatment and cardiovascular procedures. A valid and clinically informative diagnostic of biological age, combined with disease-specific biomarkers has the potential to revolutionize approaches to clinical trials, and maximizing the potential for healthy-ageing. I will review some basic principles that should govern the generation of valid ‘ageing’ diagnostics, including how such an assay could be used in the clinic, using the field of dementia as an illustrative example