The study was led by researchers at BC Children\u2019s Hospital, the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of California, Los Angeles. It is the first study to describe a method specifically designed for children, called the Pediatric-Buccal-Epigenetic (PedBE) clock, which measures chemical changes to determine the biological age of a child\u2019s DNA.<\/p>\n<\/div> \u201cWe have a good idea how these DNA changes occur in adults, but until now we didn\u2019t have a tool that was specific for children.”<\/p>\t<\/blockquote>\n\t In adults, these patterns of epigenetic changes are well established. They can be used to accurately predict a person\u2019s age from a DNA sample or, if a person\u2019s epigenetic age differs from their actual age, it can point to differences in health, including age-related diseases and early mortality. \u201cWe have a good idea how these DNA changes occur in adults, but until now we didn\u2019t have a tool that was specific for children,\u201d says\u00a0Dr. Michael Kobor<\/a>, investigator at BC Children\u2019s and senior author of study. \u201cThese DNA changes occur at very different rates in kids and so we adapted this technique for younger ages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Dr. Kobor is an investigator at BC Children\u2019s Hospital and the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, a professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Social Epigenetics and the Sunny Hill BC Leadership Chair in Child Development.<\/p>\n\n\n The PedBE clock was developed using DNA methylation profiles from 1,032 healthy children whose ages ranged from a few weeks old to 20 years. The researchers found 94 different sites in the genome that, when tested together, could accurately predict a child\u2019s age to within about four months. The team also found that children who spent longer in the womb showed an accelerated rate of DNA change by three months, demonstrating that this tool could be used to indicate an infant\u2019s developmental stage. The analysis can be done cheaply and efficiently on cells collected from a cheek swab.<\/p>\n<\/div> \u201cThis powerful and easy-to-use tool could be used by clinicians to identify why some children aren\u2019t meeting early milestones and potentially diagnose children with developmental disorders earlier in life.”<\/p>\t<\/blockquote>\n\t \u201cThis powerful and easy-to-use tool could be used by clinicians to identify why some children aren\u2019t meeting early milestones and potentially diagnose children with developmental disorders earlier in life,\u201d says Dr. Lisa McEwen, first author on the study. \u201cThis would enable doctors and pediatricians to intervene sooner in a child\u2019s life leading to better outcomes for kids.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n In a small pilot study, the researchers also found that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) showed a higher PedBE \u201cage\u201d than those considered to be developing typically, suggesting that the clock could be used to screen for ASD. <\/p>\n\n \u201cThe fact that our pediatric clock was able to distinguish between typically developing children and those with autism in this small experiment demonstrates the powerful potential of this tool,\u201d says Dr. Kobor. \u201cAlthough more research is needed to confirm this, these results show that the PedBE clock could be an important factor in evaluating how children develop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n The researchers made the tool freely available along with the publication of this study so other research teams are able to use and experiment with the tool right away.<\/p>\n\n Learn More:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n The PedBE clock accurately estimates DNA methylation age in pediatric buccal cells<\/a> Scientists have developed a molecular \u201cclock\u201d that could reshape how pediatricians measure and monitor childhood growth and potentially allow for an earlier diagnosis of life-altering development disorders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","fndry_alternate_title":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":"Andrea Sakamoto","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2467,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions\/2467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/files\/2025\/01\/Kobor-Michael-March-2017.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
Small chemical changes to DNA, known as epigenetic changes, alter how genes are expressed in certain tissues and cells. Some of these changes happen as a person ages and others may be in response to a person\u2019s environment or life experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bcchr.ca\/kobor-lab\/files\/2025\/01\/lisa-mcewen.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\t\t
Lisa M. McEwen, Kieran J. O\u2019Donnell, Megan G. McGill, Rachel D. Edgar, Meaghan J. Jones, Julia L. MacIsaac, David Tse Shen Lin, Katia Ramadori, Alexander Morin, Nicole Gladish, Elika Garg, Eva Unternaehrer, Irina Pokhvisneva, Neerja Karnani, Michelle Z. L. Kee, Torsten Klengel, Nancy E. Adler, Ronald G. Barr, Nicole Letourneau, Gerald F. Giesbrecht, James N. Reynolds, Darina Czamara, Jeffrey M. Armstrong, Marilyn J. Essex, Carolina de Weerth, Roseriet Beijers, Marieke S. Tollenaar, Bekh Bradley, Tanja Jovanovic, Kerry J. Ressler, Meir Steiner, Sonja Entringer, Pathik D. Wadhwa, Claudia Buss, Nicole R. Bush, Elisabeth B. Binder, W. Thomas Boyce, Michael J. Meaney, Steve Horvath, Michael S. Kobor
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Oct 2019, 201820843;
DOI: 10.1073\/pnas.1820843116<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"