Prospects & Overviews Identifying the genomic determinants of aging and longevity in human population studies: Progress and challenges

Human lifespan variation is mainly determined by environ-mental factors, whereas the genetic contribution is 25– 30 % and expected to be polygenic. Two complementary fields go hand in hand in order to unravel the mechanisms of biological aging: genomic and biomarker research. Explorative and candidate gene studies of the human genome by genetic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic approaches have resulted in the identification of a limited number of interesting positive linkage regions, genes, and pathways that contribute to lifespan variation. The possibil-ities to further exploit these findings are rapidly increasing through the use of novel technologies, such as next-gener-ation sequencing. Genomic research is progressively being integrated with biomarker studies on aging, including the application of (noninvasive) deep phenotyping and omics data – generated using novel technologies – in a wealth of studies in human populations. Hence, these studies may assist in obtaining a more holistic perspective on the role of the genome in aging and lifespan regulation. Keywords:.biomarkers; genomics; healthy aging; human; longevit