Biological Clocks of Aging: Modifiability, Mechanism, and Functional Translation

Beyond the well-studied multi-omics and epigenetic clocks, a broader set of biological aging measures, phenotypic, functional, inflammatory, microbiome, and imaging-based clocks, offer complementary windows into aging trajectories and their links to functional decline and age-related disease risk. These modalities often capture physiological and systems-level information that molecular clocks alone can miss, yet their biological meaning, sensitivity to intervention, and functional relevance remain far less established. A central open question is whether these clocks track processes that are actually modifiable: do changes in biological age driven by exercise, nutrition, caloric restriction, pharmacological treatment, or other geroscience interventions reflect real, durable shifts in the underlying biology, and do they map onto meaningful physiological or functional outcomes. This Research Topic focuses on the modifiability and functional translation of biological clocks of aging, beyond multi-omics approaches. It welcomes contributions examining how phenotypic, functional, inflammatory, microbiome, and imaging-based clocks relate to hallmarks of aging, respond to intervention, and connect to physiological or clinical function. Studies of exercise, nutrition, pharmacological agents, or other interventions are especially encouraged when they pair clock-based endpoints with mechanistic or functional interpretation, rather than reporting biological-age shifts in isolation. We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes: • Phenotypic, functional, inflammatory, microbiome, and imaging-based clocks of aging, and how they complement molecular and multi-omics measures.• Mechanistic relationships between these clock modalities and cellular senescence, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammaging, proteostasis, stem-cell exhaustion, epigenetic drift, and altered intercellular communication.• Effects of exercise, nutrition, caloric restriction, pharmacological agents, and other geroscience interventions on biological-age measures, with explicit links to mechanism or physiological/functional outcomes.• Durability and biological meaning of intervention-induced changes in biological age.• Tissue-, population-, and context-specific performance of non-omics aging clocks, including their integration with clinical and functional assessments. Topic editors: Cristina Mas Bargues, Nikos Margaritelis Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86413/biological-clocks-of-aging-modifiability-mechanism-and-functional-translation