methylclock

methylclock estimates chronological, gestational, and biological DNA methylation (DNAm) age using multiple established methylation clocks.

Key Features:

• Chronological DNAm age estimation: Computes DNAm age in years using Horvath's clock, Hannum's clock, BNN, Horvath's skin+blood clock, PedBE clock, and Wu's clock.
• Gestational DNAm age estimation: Computes gestational age using Knight's clock, Bohlin's clock, Mayne's clock, and Lee's clocks.
• Biological DNAm age estimation: Computes biological age using Levine's clock and Telomere Length's clock.
• Visualization functions: Generates plots of DNAm age prediction versus chronological age and correlations between different DNAm clocks.
• Missing data imputation: Performs imputation required for DNAm age clock calculations.
• Cell type estimation: Provides cell type estimates needed as input for DNAm age clocks.

Scientific Applications:

• Aging research: Estimates biological and chronological age from DNA methylation profiles across human tissues to study aging as a biological process related to disease and mortality.
• Developmental biology: Estimates gestational age from DNAm data for studies of fetal development and early life epigenetic programming.
• Epigenetic epidemiology: Compares multiple DNAm clocks to assess correlations and discrepancies between different epigenetic aging measures.

Methodology:

The package computes DNAm age by applying established clock algorithms to DNA methylation profiling data, with integrated functions for missing data imputation and cell type estimation as required inputs.