Ancient epigenetics: a deep time approach to skeletal frailty and aging

The processes of aging impact our bodies down to the structure and organization of our DNA. Epigenetic changes, including the ‘tacking on’ of small molecules to our DNA, are important to understanding the aging process and how it impacts skeletal frailty and disease risk for osteoporosis. While this is starting to be understood in the present, the past is still an untapped resource for information on how epigenetics affects aging and skeletal frailty. This project proposes a deep time approach to learn in a broader way about aging across multiple contexts and through time.