Development and Validation of Biomarkers for biological brain aging

Aging is associated with a wide range of molecular and structural changes throughout an individual’s lifespan, resulting in the deterioration of physical abilities and increased risk of disease. In the brain, aging results in cognitive decline and predisposes to neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Therefore, developing biomarkers capable of robustly capturing age-related biological changes is necessary to understand the pathophysiology of various disorders and potentially assess the effects of interventions that target aging.

This project is a collaboration between the Data Analysis group at the Neurobiology Research Unit (NRU), and lead by the Group of Pontus Plavén-Sigray at the Karolinska Institutet. In particular, we aim to:

• Validate existing biomarkers of brain aging on large datasets, focusing on test-retest reliability and construct validity. Both are important and need to be established before application in clinical trials
• Develop new biomarkers of aging using machine learning and neuroimaging. Mainly, we are interested in whether brain imaging using positron emission tomography yields important information regarding aging.