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Glossary

Definitions of the terms used across Eonix, each on its own page.

A

All-cause mortalityAll-cause mortality counts deaths from any cause at all, which is why it cannot be improved by moving deaths from one category into another.

B

Biological ageBiological age is an estimate of how worn a body is, produced by a statistical model rather than measured directly, and it is not a fact about a person in the way a birth date is.

C

Cellular senescenceCellular senescence is a state in which a damaged cell stops dividing but does not die, and instead keeps signalling to the tissue around it.
Cohort studyA cohort study follows a large group of people over years, recording what they do and what happens to them, without assigning anyone to anything.

D

DNA methylationDNA methylation is a chemical tag attached to DNA that helps decide whether a gene is switched on, and whose pattern shifts in predictable ways with age.

E

Epigenetic clockAn epigenetic clock is a statistical model that reads DNA methylation from a blood or saliva sample and returns an estimated age or rate of aging.

G

GeroscienceGeroscience is the field built on the idea that aging itself drives most chronic disease, so slowing aging would postpone many diseases at once rather than one at a time.

H

I

Interventions Testing ProgramThe Interventions Testing Program is a US government programme that tests candidate life-extending compounds in mice at three independent laboratories using one shared protocol.

L

LifespanLifespan is how long an individual lives, and in research it is reported in at least three different ways that are easy to mistake for one another.

M

mTORmTOR is a protein that senses whether nutrients are plentiful and switches the cell between building new material and recycling what it already has.

N

NAD+NAD+ is a molecule every cell needs to turn food into usable energy, and whose measured levels in tissue fall with age — the observation the whole NAD-boosting supplement market rests on.

R

S

Surrogate endpointA surrogate endpoint is a measurement used in place of how a patient feels, functions or survives, on the assumption that moving it will move those things too.