Environmental and age effects on methylation changes in human brain and blood cells

Previous studies have shown that DNA methylation may 1 e associated with disease, aging, the rate of aging and genetics. In this thesis, age is accurately predicted from DNA methylation in brain and blood tissues using two different algorithms, Random Forest and Linear Regression. Relationships between DNA methylation, genetics, disease and aging rate were also identified. Furthermore, the differences between the real ages and the predicted ages were found to be associated with the age of onset of aging related disease. The findings presented in this thesis take us a step further in understanding the causes of aging and age related disease and further prove the theory that methylation is related to our internal biological clock and disease.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Giguzinsky, Orit

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Manolis Kellis.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/91823

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/91823