DunedinPACE is best clock for many aging traits

27. March 2026

Delving into the mechanisms of biological aging, our team has actively contributed to a trio of recent publications based on the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) cohort. The first two studies, led by V.M. Vetter, offer a comprehensive cross-sectional and longitudinal comparison of various biological aging markers. By evaluating up to sixteen measures—including epigenetic clocks, proteomics, and composite laboratory markers—against age-associated phenotypes, we found that the epigenetic pace of aging, a DNA-methylation based “biological clock” called DunedinPACE shows the strongest consistency. In addition, DunedinPACE also emerged as the most robust predictor of mortality among fourteen consensus biomarkers for this trait. Adding to this, was an earlier report showing that DunedinPACE is also the most powerful epigenetic clock to predict the onset of metabolic syndrome, a combination of aging-relevant symptoms such as high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, and increased abdominal fat. Besides Dr. Bertram, these collaborative efforts involved key analytical contributions from several current and former LIGA members, namely Marit P. Junge, J. Homann, L. Deecke, and C.M. Lill. You can access the full texts following these links: Vetter et al. 2026 Commun Med, Vetter et al. 2026 Biomark Res, and Demuth et al. 2025.