Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Early Detection of Cyanobacterial Blooms and Associated Cyanotoxins using Fast Detection Strategy
Published on: February 25, 2021
An epigenetic pacemaker is detected via a fast conditional expectation maximization algorithm
Sagi Snir1, Matteo Pellegrini2
1Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Haifa, Haifa, 3498838, Israel.
Aim:
DNA methylation has proven to be a remarkably accurate biomarker for human age, allowing the prediction of chronological age to within a couple of years. Recently, we proposed that the Universal PaceMaker (UPM), a flexible paradigm for modeling evolution, could be applied to epigenetic aging. Nevertheless, application to real data was restricted to small datasets for technical limitations.
Materials & Methods:
We partition the set of variables into to two subsets and optimize the likelihood function on each set separately. This yields an extremely efficient Conditional Expectation Maximization algorithm, alternating between the two sets while increasing the overall likelihood.
Results:
Using the technique, we could reanalyze datasets of larger magnitude and show significant advantage to the UPM approach.
Conclusion:
The UPM more faithfully models epigenetic aging than the time linear approach while methylated sites accelerate and decelerate jointly.
Related Concept Videos
Epigenetic Regulation
Epigenetic Regulation
X-chromosome...
Expected Value
Determination of Expected Frequency
Trial and Error and Algorithm
Expected Frequencies in Goodness-of-Fit Tests

