About
Although life span is prolonged, health span remains a concern for the public. Aging is the single largest risk factor for chronic diseases and a complex process of progressive functional decline influenced by environmental, genetic, and stochastic factors, and aging-associated diseases are diseases that are most often seen with increasing frequency with increasing senescence. Meanwhile, the important difference between the disease status of the elderly and the young is that the elderly usually coexist with a variety of chronic diseases, known as comorbidity or complex pathology. With increasing longevity, but not necessarily health span, there is a need to determine the underlying biology of aging.
The aim of the project is to investigate whether genetic, behavioural (e.g., smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, sleep), physical (e.g., body mass index, blood pressure, grip strength), ill health and its indicators (e.g., diabetes, vascular problems, asthma), lifestyle (e.g., socioeconomic position), cognitive (e.g., brain structure and volume, processing speed and memory) factors, biological markers ( e.g., TG, HDL, ALT, and AST) and sensory function(e.g., hearing and vision) influence the progression and development of aging-associated diseases, including cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), chronic respiratory diseases, sense organ diseases, chronic kidney diseases (CKDs), sarcopenia, frailty, diabetes, metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and cancer, etc.
Rigorous analytic approaches, including Cox proportional hazard model, bivariate surface model and so on will be performed to identify biological factors, anthropometric measurements, behavior factors and lifestyle factors of aging-associated diseases. Genome wide association study (GWAS) and phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) approaches will be used to characterize genetic variation/mutation statistically associated with specific aging-associated diseases and to interrogate with which phenotypes a given genetic variant may be associated. We explore potential targets and biomarkers based on the results of UKB's multiomic sequencing. Effect modification of individual components in the association between genetic variation/mutation and aging-associated diseases will be estimated based on effect measure. Additionally, we seek to examine how effectively genetic information, multi-omics sequencing and anthropometric measures can be used to predict the occurrence and progression of aging-associated diseases.
In the time span of 36 months, we will aim to identify the factors of aging-associated diseases. Our findings may contribute to prolong not only life span but also health span of adults that contribute to improving the quality of life of the public.
16 Publications
| Pub ID | Title | Author(s) | Year | Journal |
| 14088 | ANGPTL4-mediated microglial lipid droplet accumulation: Bridging Alzheimer's disease and obesity | Nan Li (+10) | 2024 | Neurobiology of Disease |
| 17510 | Accelerometer-derived weekend warrior physical activity pattern and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in patients with cardiovascular disease | Lan Wang (+5) | 2026 | European Journal of Preventive Cardiology |
| 14042 | Association between major depressive disorder or depressive symptoms and the risk of vascular complications among patients with type 2 diabetes, and the mediating role of metabolic biomarkers: an analysis of the UK Biobank cohort | Guochen Li (+5) | 2024 | EClinicalMedicine |
| 13410 | Association between self-reported child maltreatment and risk of hospital-treated infectious diseases in middle-aged and older adults: A UK Biobank cohort study | Yifang Huang (+8) | 2024 | Preventive Medicine |
| 17146 | Association of accelerated biological aging and frailty with the risk of severe infection: a prospective study in the UK Biobank | Runzhi Bai (+10) | 2025 | The Journal of Frailty & Aging |
| 15111 | Association of air pollution exposure and habitual physical activity with risk of overall and cause-specific hospital-treated infections: a UK Biobank cohort study | Zixuan Jiang (+10) | 2025 | Environmental Research |
| 17481 | Association of intraindividual differences in estimated glomerular filtration rates based on cystatin C and creatinine with dementia: A cohort study of the UK Biobank. | Zhiyi Mao (+6) | 2026 | PLOS ONE |
| 15120 | Association of maternal smoking, breastfeeding, and multiple birth with irritable bowel syndrome in older adults: a UK Biobank cohort study | Xinyang Liu (+9) | 2025 | Gastroenterology Report |
| 15327 | Childhood Smoking Initiation, Genetic Susceptibility, and Incident Cardiovascular Diseases in Adulthood | Hui Yang (+4) | 2025 | Journal of Adolescent Health |
| 15337 | Insulin resistance mediates the association between adiposity markers and incident chronic kidney disease: Findings from the UK Biobank prospective cohort study | Xiaojun Wang (+8) | 2025 | Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice |
| 18473 | Novel proteomic subtypes of frailty with distinct molecular patterns and prognosis | Zhenyi Xu (+6) | 2026 | Maturitas |
| 17745 | Physical activity patterns and cardiovascular disease risk in adults with overweight or obesity: a prospective cohort study | Kai Mu (+6) | 2026 | BMC Medicine |
| 14455 | Physical frailty, genetic predisposition, and type 2 diabetes mellitus | Zhenyi Xu (+6) | 2025 | Diabetes & Metabolism |
| 17174 | Proteomic signature of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease | Lulu Pan (+6) | 2025 | Cardiovascular Diabetology |
| 17460 | Retinal photographs to predict Life's Essential 8 for cardiovascular risk stratification: a novel deep-learning-based tool. | Chenkai Zhao (+13) | 2026 | European Heart Journal - Digital Health |
| 18361 | Sleep patterns, depression, and incident thyroid diseases: a large cohort study of 371,627 United Kingdom biobank participants | Xudan Lou (+6) | 2026 | BMC Public Health |