Skip to content
Back to glossary
Aging clocks

PCPhenoAge

PCPhenoAge is a technically refined version of the DNAm PhenoAge clock, introduced by Higgins-Chen and colleagues (2022). The upgrade: it runs principal-component (PC) regression on the underlying methylation data before computing the age score. That PC step strips out technical noise and batch effects, which normally inflate the variance in methylation arrays. The payoff is a clock with much better test-retest reliability, and less sensitivity to sample quality or processing. In practice, PCPhenoAge keeps the death-predicting power of the original. But it is far better suited to long-term studies and trials, where the goal is tracking change in you over time.

Last reviewed:

This definition is educational and is not medical advice, a diagnosis, or treatment. Talk to a doctor about any health decisions. Read our full medical disclaimer

Sources

  1. Higgins-Chen AT, Thrush KL, Wang Y, Minteer CJ, Kuo PL, Wang M, Niimi P, Sturm G, Lin J, Moore AZ, Bandinelli S, Vinkers CH, Vermetten E, Rutten BPF, Geuze E, Okhuijsen-Pfeifer C, van der Horst MZ, Schreiter S, Gutwinski S, Luykx JJ, Picard M, Ferrucci L, Poganik JR, Bhanu NV, Garcia BA, Horvath S, Raj K, Levine ME. (2022). A computational solution for bolstering reliability of epigenetic clocks: implications for clinical trials and longitudinal tracking. *Nature Aging*doi:10.1038/s43587-022-00248-2