New “metabolic clock” could help detect early signs of disease and accelerated aging

New “metabolic clock” could help detect early signs of disease and accelerated aging

The study, published in npj Metabolic Health and Disease (Nature Portfolio), introduces a powerful tool for predicting biological age, uncovering disease-specific metabolic signatures, and supporting early detection and risk stratification.

The clock has been developed using data from more than 13,500 participants in the AKRIBEA cohort, a large-scale health study conducted in the Basque Country in collaboration with the Mondragón Corporation.

What if a simple blood test could tell how fast you're really aging, or warn you of potential health issues before symptoms appear? A team of scientists from CIC bioGUNE, member of BRTA, led by Prof. José M. Mato, General Director of the center, and Dr. Óscar Millet, head of the Precision Medicine and Metabolism Laboratory, has developed a metabolic aging clock that does just that. Their work, now published in npj Metabolic Health and Disease, offers a new way to detect early signs of disease and track aging using non-invasive blood analysis.

The tool is based on NMR metabolomics, a technology that analyzes small molecules in the blood. With the help of machine learning, the team created a model that predicts a person’s biological age, a better measure of health than the number of years since birth.

The clock was developed using data from over 13,500 individuals in the AKRIBEA cohort, a large-scale health study based in the Basque Country, in collaboration with the Mondragón Corporation. In total, the final dataset included around 20,000 participants across a wide age range.

“Our goal was to obtain an independent measure of age, beyond the information on a passport,” explains Dr. Millet. “The importance of this study lies in the fact that discrepancies between chronological age and metabolic age within the metabolic space may reveal early markers of disease.”

Spotting disease through “metabolic distortion”

Researchers used their clock to analyze blood samples from people with different diseases. In prostate cancer patients, for example, the average metabolic age was nearly five years older than their actual age. In people with fatty liver disease (MASLD), that difference was even greater, over 14 years.

They also found that different subtypes of fatty liver disease showed different aging patterns, insights that are hard to detect using standard clinical tests.

A new tool for personalized health

In addition to predicting biological age, the team’s platform can estimate over 25 standard clinical parameters, like inflammation or kidney function, using the same blood sample. This could help doctors get a fuller picture of a patient’s health from a single, non-invasive test.

“The idea is to capture as much information as possible from existing clinical tests,” adds Dr. Millet. “It is remarkable how much of this information is already encoded within a serum NMR spectrum.”

The study is part of CIC bioGUNE’s commitment to precision medicine and has been developed within the CIBERehd research network and the Complementary Plans in Biotechnology Applied to Health. With more validation, the team hopes to expand its use across healthcare systems to help people live longer and healthier lives.

Reference: Ibáñez de Opakua A, Conde R, de Diego A, Bizkarguenaga M, Embade N, Lu SC, Mato JM, Millet O. Metabolomic-based aging clocks. NPJ Metab Health Dis. 2025 Sep 3;3(1):35. DOI: 10.1038/s44324-025-00078-x.

About CIC bioGUNE

The Centre for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC bioGUNE), member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance (BRTA), located in the Bizkaia Technology Park, is a biomedical research organization conducting cutting-edge research at the interface between structural, chemical, molecular and cell biology, with a particular focus on generating knowledge on the molecular bases of disease, for use in the development of new diagnostic methods and advanced therapies.

About BRTA

BRTA is an alliance of 4 collaborative research centres (CIC bioGUNE, CIC nanoGUNE, CIC biomaGUNE y CIC energiGUNE) and 13 technology centres (Azterlan, Azti, Ceit, Cidetec, Gaiker, Ideko, Ikerlan, Leartiker, Lortek, Neiker, Tecnalia, Tekniker y Vicomtech) with the main objective of developing advanced technological solutions for the Basque corporate fabric.

With the support of the Basque Government, the SPRI Group and the Provincial Councils of the three territories, the alliance seeks to promote collaboration between the research centres, strengthen the conditions to generate and transfer knowledge to companies, contributing to their competitiveness and outspreading the Basque scientific-technological capacity abroad.

BRTA has a workforce of over 4,000 professionals, executes 22% of the Basque Country's R&D investment, registers an annual turnover of more than 300 million euros and generates 100 European and international patents per year.