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Age effect explorer: a Shiny application to browse and visualize tissue-specific age-related gene expression changes
Menghui Chen1, Mingrui Li1, Ronnie Y Li2
1Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Emory University, 1518 Clifton RD NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, United States.
Bioinformatics Advances
|February 12, 2026
Summary
Age Effect Explorer is a new tool that analyzes age-related gene expression changes across human tissues. This accessible application helps researchers explore aging transcriptomics and discover tissue-specific aging mechanisms without coding.
Area of Science:
- Genomics
- Aging Research
- Bioinformatics
Background:
- Understanding age-related transcriptional changes is key to aging and disease research.
- Current genomic analysis tools often require advanced programming skills, limiting accessibility.
- A user-friendly tool is needed for comprehensive aging studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an interactive R Shiny application for analyzing age- and sex-related gene expression patterns.
- To provide code-free exploration of aging transcriptomics across multiple human tissues.
- To facilitate the discovery of tissue-specific aging mechanisms.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) v10 data for 54 human tissues.
- Analyzed gene-level expression profiles from 981 individuals.
- Employed ordinary least squares linear models with age, sex, and technical covariates, including FDR correction.
Main Results:
- Developed the Age Effect Explorer, an interactive web application.
- Stored pre-calculated results in a cloud database for rapid, code-free exploration.
- Validated known aging markers, such as age-correlated EDA2R.
Conclusions:
- Age Effect Explorer democratizes access to aging transcriptomics data.
- The application facilitates the systematic analysis of age- and sex-related gene expression.
- Enables researchers to uncover tissue-specific molecular mechanisms of aging.
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