Department of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Bakar Aging Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Nat Aging. 2023 Aug;3(8):921-930. doi: 10.1038/s43587-023-00448-4. Epub 2023 Jun 29.
Technical advancements over the past two decades have enabled the measurement of the panoply of molecules of cells and tissues including transcriptomes, epigenomes, metabolomes and proteomes at unprecedented resolution. Unbiased profiling of these molecular landscapes in the context of aging can reveal important details about mechanisms underlying age-related functional decline and age-related diseases. However, the high-throughput nature of these experiments creates unique analytical and design demands for robustness and reproducibility. In addition, 'omic' experiments are generally onerous, making it crucial to effectively design them to eliminate as many spurious sources of variation as possible as well as account for any biological or technical parameter that may influence such measures. In this Perspective, we provide general guidelines on best practices in the design and analysis of omic experiments in aging research from experimental design to data analysis and considerations for long-term reproducibility and validation of such studies.
在过去的二十年中，技术的进步使得能够以前所未有的分辨率测量细胞和组织的各种分子，包括转录组、表观基因组、代谢组和蛋白质组。在衰老的背景下对这些分子图谱进行无偏分析可以揭示与年龄相关的功能下降和与年龄相关的疾病相关的重要机制细节。然而，这些实验的高通量性质为稳健性和可重复性创造了独特的分析和设计需求。此外，“组学”实验通常很繁重，因此有效地设计它们以消除尽可能多的虚假变异源以及考虑任何可能影响这些测量的生物学或技术参数至关重要。在这篇观点文章中，我们从实验设计到数据分析，以及对这些研究的长期可重复性和验证的考虑，提供了衰老研究中组学实验设计和分析的一般最佳实践指南。
