Willard Freeman
University of Oklahoma-Health Sciences Center, OK·Genetics
Why do bodies age, and can aging be measured or slowed? Two leading ideas involve changes to DNA as we get older.
- Fields
Genetics
Biology
Biochemistry
- Topics
geroscience
biology of aging
epigenomics
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2030
What they work on
- Perform quantitatively precise analyses of DNA modifications, methylation and hydroxymethylation, from genome-wide to gene-specific scale for aging studies, including whole-genome epigenomic profiling by nanopore sequencing.
- Measure mitochondrial genome heteroplasmy, the mix of normal and variant mitochondrial DNA, for full variant analysis, and count mitochondrial DNA copy number precisely using digital PCR.
- Provide epigenomic clock analyses, which estimate biological age from DNA methylation patterns, for mouse studies of aging and anti-aging interventions.
- Turn investigator-submitted samples, including stored nucleic acids, into analyzed, usable results through bioinformatic workflows built with the GeroInformatics Resource.
More about the research
The first is damage to mitochondrial DNA, the small genome inside the cell's energy-producing mitochondria. This damage includes mutations, deletions and changes in how many copies each cell carries. The second involves the epigenome, the chemical marks on DNA, such as methylation, that control which genes are used without changing the genetic code. The epigenome shifts with age, and anti-aging treatments can prevent some of these shifts. Patterns of these marks can serve as epigenomic clocks that estimate biological age.
Why it matters
Epigenomic clocks could provide a common measure of biological aging and of whether anti-aging interventions work. Mitochondrial DNA changes are a central suspected cause of age-related mitochondrial decline. By giving aging researchers nationwide precise measurements and analyzed data they could not easily produce themselves, the core may speed studies of the causes of aging and of potential interventions.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yang Pan
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Test whether mitochondrial DNA copy number and heteroplasmy (mutation load), measured in blood at two midlife time points, predict cognitive decline in Bogalusa Heart Study participants, with validation in the TOPMed cohort.
Daniel Promislow
Tufts University, MA·Biology
Develop sex- and tissue-specific metabolome clocks in Drosophila, along with the first longitudinal clock that follows the same flies' metabolite levels over time.
Lisa Barcellos
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Develop comprehensive wildfire smoke exposure assignments for all members of a multi-ethnic cohort of about 5,000 East Bay adults sampled during the 2020–2021 wildfire seasons.
The school
University of Oklahoma-Health Sciences Center: 11 labs on PI Pages, $474M a year on research, 31 research doctorates a year.
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