DNA Methylation Age Calculator

Abstract

This webpage contains information on how to calculate DNA methylation (DNAm) age based on data measured using the Illumina Infinium human (e.g. EPIC, 450K, or 27K data) or pan-mammalian methylation platforms (e.g. HorvathMammalMethyl40 or HorvathMammalMethyl320).

The age calculator presented below automatically outputs the estimated DNAm age and optionally various measures of age acceleration, predictive accuracy, and data quality. After uploading the data, the function will return an Excel file whose rows report the estimated DNAm age of each subject and optionally additional information. If you only submit DNA methylation data, then you will only obtain an estimate of DNAm age.

There are also analysis upgrade options now available from the Clock Foundation for a fee.  The premium analyses include: (a) expanded QC and outlier reports; (b) custom study outcome & group analysis reports; and (c) personalized GrimAge and longitudinal tracking reports for individuals.  

DNA Methylation Data

The calculator is only applicable to DNA methylation data that come with an identifier for CpG probes measured on the Illumina platform. 

If submitting beta values rather than IDAT files, the first column of the methylation data must be CpG probe identifiers (cg numbers) such as the following: cg00000292, cg00002426, cg00003994...

Please save the methylation levels (beta values) in a comma delimited text file (e.g. an Excel .csv file). Optionally, you can compress the comma delimited file (. csv files) into a file that ends either with .zip.  Other compression formats can not yet be used. The first column should contain the CpG probe identifiers (cg numbers). The remaining columns correspond to samples. The file should contain a header (e.g. starting with "ProbeID", "Subject1", "Subject2",...).

Methylation Data Example: MethylationDataExample55.csv
Sample Annotation Example: CFSampleAnnotationExample.csv

List of CpG Probes Necessary for Full Results: datMiniAnnotation4_fixed.csv  

Tutorial

• TUTORIALonlineCalculator.docx
• TUTORIALonlineCalculator.pdf

Citing the Software

A data dictionary is provided with the calculator results that includes citations for the results, including specific references for each epigenetic clock. If you use the software in your published work, please cite it as follows:

The method and R function for the Horvath pan-tissue clock is described in

• Horvath S (2013) DNA methylation age of human tissues and cell types.

Acknowledgments

Please email the Clock Foundation team and also Steve Horvath as needed with questions (info@clockfoundation.org; shorvath@mednet.ucla.edu), subject heading: DNAmAge. SH gratefully acknowledges the many researchers who made their DNA-methylation datasets publicly available and responded to his email requests.