1. Epigenetics of Aging and Longevity
- Author
-
Axel Schumacher
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Distributed database ,business.industry ,Computer science ,Deep learning ,Big data ,Population health ,Precision medicine ,Data science ,03 medical and health sciences ,Early adopter ,030104 developmental biology ,0302 clinical medicine ,Health care ,Profiling (information science) ,Artificial intelligence ,business ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Unlocking the value of epigenetic data for actionable insights will drive aging research, precision medicine, and ultimately population health. Fundamental questions should be addressed by integrative personal omics profiling with epigenomics at its center, combining genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, and autoantibody profiles from an individual to reveal dynamic molecular changes in health and disease. With the evolution of better technologies and digital capacity, enormous amounts of omics data will be produced and stored in the digital space and researchers will need artificial intelligence (AI) to be able to keep track of it. AI is already transforming the world of medicine and will help healthcare providers make faster and more accurate diagnoses. Based on epigenetic data, deep learning algorithms will predict the risk of a disease in time to prevent it and will help scientists understand how interindividual epigenetic variability leads to disease. However, ensuring security and privacy in transmitting and storing personal epigenetic profiles will require building a new and open multiomics data ecosystem. Blockchain, an open-source technology that uses a distributed database for secure transactions, has the potential to address many of the challenges related to security and privacy with personal health information. Blockchain technology enables integrating data from a distributed network of participants in the healthcare value chain on a global scale. We are in the initial stages of a revolution in precision medicine enabled by advanced technologies such as epigenomics, AI, and blockchain. The pioneering effort by early adopters from the research space is critical for putting these technologies within reach of the broader healthcare ecosystem.
- Published
- 2018
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