General aim: Our long-term goal is to study the biological aging mechanisms involved in dementia and cognitive performance, based on epigenetic clocks; and the causal effect of environmental risk (health risk behaviours, low SES, exposure to violence, and cardiometabolic factors) and protective (healthy lifestyles, childhood positive experiences) factors on the epigenetic age in all-cause dementia cases and controls, aged 60+ years. Hypothesis: We hypothesise that dementia cases and poorer cognitive performance exhibit accelerated epigenetic clocks; and that risk or protective factors impact an acceleration or deceleration of the epigenetic aging, respectively in a causal manner. This study addresses protective and risk factors for the development of dementia, in a case-control study. For this, it uses advanced biostatistical and molecular biology methods used in epidemiological research.
PI: Carolina Ochoa-Rosales
Support:FONDECYT Inicio, ANID (Chile)
