#072 Morgan Levine, PhD, on PhenoAge and the Epigenetics of Age Acceleration — can we change the pace?

Morgan Levine, Ph.D., developed the phenotypic aging clock called PhenoAge and is a Founding Principal Investigator at Altos Labs, a biotech company that seeks to understand the mechanisms that drive the aging process and age-related diseases with the hope of identifying possible interventions. Additionally, Dr. Levine is an assistant professor of pathology at the Yale University School of Medicine, where her research focuses on the science of biological aging.

Dr. Levine completed a postdoctoral fellowship with previous guest Dr. Steve Horvath, a pioneer in the field of epigenetic clocks. 

In this episode, Dr. Levine and I discuss: 

• (00:00) Introduction to Dr. Morgan Levine
• (01:19) What is aging and why does it matter to scientists?
• (04:45) Hallmarks of aging
• (08:59) The advantage of epigenetic clocks in research
• (19:05) Epigenetic age acceleration
• (36:40) Are epigenetic changes in aging a cause or consequence?
• (42:15) Reversing epigenetic age with interrupted reprogramming techniques
• (49:27) Therapeutic plasma exchange in aging and pro-aging factors in blood 
• (56:01) Lifestyle factors that accelerate epigenetic age
• (01:03:23) Reliability of consumer epigenetic aging tests
• (01:06:12) Construct validity of epigenetic clocks
• (01:12:06) Thoughts on most exciting research in aging field 
• (01:13:44) Dr. Levine's lifestyle habits

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