Project R-13757

ATHLETE Fellowship program: Telomere length in childhood and its multiomics signatures (Research)

Telomere length is a marker of biological ageing, and a short telomere length in early life predicts lifespan and disease susceptibility in later life. A number of studies have been carried out to identify genetics1-4, epigenomics5, transcriptomics6 and metabolomics7 profiles associated with telomere length. However, most of the population-based findings so far were in adults despite that telomere length in early life is an important determinant of telomere length in adulthood8,9. In addition, little has been reported combining different omics layers in the study of telomere biology, while multi-omics analyses could suggest relevant pathways with a stronger consistency, and would be capable of identifying key molecular processes in a broader range. Studies suggested that oxidative stress is one of the main drivers of telomere shortening10. Telomere shortening thus reflects the harshness of the environment an individual has experienced. Studying the stress-related difference in multi-omics signature of telomere length would improve our understanding of stress-induced telomere dynamics. In the multi-center Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) project11, data has been preprocessed and harmonized for leukocyte telomere length, genome-wide genotyping, DNA methylation, gene and miRNA expression, serum and urine metabolomics, and plasma proteomics. In this study, we aim to explore the multi-omics signature of childhood telomere length which will point to relevant biological pathways, and how this multi-omics signature behaves differentially under potential stressors of biological ageing

09 January 2023 - 03 March 2023