Vienna-based researchers help develop AI blood test to measure ageing

Vienna (dpa) – The Fountain of Youth appears in writings going back to the time of Herodotus, the 5th century BC Greek historian. And while a mythical spring and its time-reversing water has never been found, the wish to remain forever young – or at least delay the effects of ageing – lives on. Thanks to artificial intelligence, there is now at least a growing chance that we will be able to keep tabs not just on our age, but also on the mysterious process by which some people physically age faster than others. An Austrian-Chinese team of scientists has come up with a way they say can track the process by using AI as part of a blood test aimed at uncovering the molecular processes underlying ageing. The test is based on measuring aspartate, an amino acid that the University of Vienna and Nankai University researchers described as "a dominant biomarker of physical fitness." "Physical activity does more than building up muscle mass," said Wolfram Weckwerth of the University of Vienna. "It rewires our metabolism at the molecular level. By decoding those changes, we can track – and even guide—how well someone is ageing." "The precise molecular processes that translate physical activity into healthier ageing remained poorly understood," the team said, outlining why they carried out the work, which was published in npj Systems Biology and Applications, a Nature journal. The study was undertaken in five retirement homes in Vienna and aimed to "assess the impact of resistance training and protein-vitamin supplementation or a cognitive training on physical performance," the team explained in the paper. The following information is not intended for publication dpa spr

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