Slowing down decay: biological clocks in personalized medicine

Frontiers in Sociology · 3 authors, 2 centres

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TL;DR

This narrative review analyzes how biological clock technologies, which measure biological age, are constructed in research and commercialized, framing aging as a modifiable process. The central result is that these technologies enact a 'politics of decay,' emphasizing individual maintenance while obscuring broader social and environmental determinants.

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This narrative review examines biological clocks, technologies designed to calculate biological age from molecular biomarkers. The authors analyze two contexts: laboratory research (e.g., using omics data) and commercial products (e.g., GlycanAge), showing how they conceptualize decay. The central analysis argues these clocks enact a 'politics of decay' by presenting aging as both an inevitable decline and a manageable process. This perspective neglects broader socio-economic factors affecting aging, primarily serving wealthy populations in developed countries.

STUDY TYPE

narrative_review

SPECIALTY

geriatrics

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100% · A

ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10149663

Slowing down decay: biological clocks in personalized medicine

Frontiers in Sociology

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ABSTRACT

Abstract This article discusses so-called biological clocks. These technologies, based on aging biomarkers, trace and measure molecular changes in order to monitor individuals' “true” biological age against their chronological age. Drawing on the concept of decay, and building on ethnographic fieldwork in an academic laboratory and a commercial firm, we analyze the implications of the development and commercialization of biological clocks that can identify when decay is “out of tempo.” We show how the building of biological clocks rests on particular forms of knowing decay: In the academic laboratory, researchers focus on endo-processes of decay that are internal to the person, but when the technology moves to the market, the focus shifts as staff bracket decay as exo-processes, which are seen as resulting from a person's lifestyle. As the technology of biological clocks travels from the laboratory to the market of online testing of the consumer's biological age, we observe shifting visions of aging: from an inevitable trajectory of decline to a malleable and plastic one. While decay is an inevitable trajectory starting at birth and ending with death, the commercialization of biological clocks points to ways of stretching time between birth and death as individuals “optimize” their biological age through lifestyle changes. Regardless of admitted uncertainties about what is measured and the connection between maintenance and future health outcomes, the aging person is made responsible for their decaying body and for enacting maintenance to slow down decay. We show how the biological clock's way of “knowing” decay turns aging and its maintenance into a life-long concern and highlight the normative implications of framing decay as malleable and in need of intervention. Keywords: biological clocks, aging, decay, maintenance, personalized medicine, unknowing

CITATION EXPORT

Clémence Pinel, Sara Green, Mette N Svendsen. Slowing down decay: biological clocks in personalized medicine. Frontiers in Sociology. (2023). https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1111071

AUTHORS

3 · 2 CENTRES

Clémence Pinel, Sara Green, Mette N Svendsen

1Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
2Section for History of Philosophy of Science, Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark