Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
190,332 studies31 sourcesUpdated 45 min ago
PreprintCC BY-NC-NDbioRxiv

DE-SWAN analysis of biomarker trajectories over the life course is highly sensitive to age distribution and model parameterization

  • A. Che
  • P. Shah
  • K. T. Tanner
  • A. A. Cohen1
  1. 1Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Read full textPDFDOICite

Abstract

DE-SWAN is a commonly used method to study how large ensembles of omics biomarkers change across the life course. It has been used to demonstrate apparent repeated accelerations and decelerations of aging rates across the life course, including 2-3 peaks of aging-related changes. This result contradicts what is expected based on the demography of aging and known biological mechanisms. Here, we use simulations to study the robustness of DE-SWAN to the age distribution of the study sample and to choice of window size. We show that under many realistic scenarios, DE-SWAN is highly sensitive to factors unrelated to the underlying rates of change in aging biology. This calls into question the results of previous analyses that have attributed DE-SWAN peaks to acceleration and deceleration of aging. We conclude that the method is unreliable for studying rates of change across the life course under most circumstances.

Related

  1. General population-based lung function trajectories over the life course: an accelerated cohort study
    Judith Garcia-Aymerich, Martí de las Heras, Anne-Elie Carsin +28
    The Lancet Respiratory MedicinePeer-reviewedCC BYFull text32 citedGeneral biologyHAL
  2. An exact version of Hunt's ancestor-descendant directional random walk parameterization
    R. Ergon
    bioRxivPreprintCC BYFull textEvolutionary biologybioRxiv
  3. Resolution-aware spectral parameterization reveals robust context-dependent aperiodic EEG dynamics during real-world table tennis
    A. Guchait, C.-Y. Chen, N. G. Muggleton
    bioRxivPreprintCC BYFull textNeurosciencebioRxiv
  4. From Network Topology to Parameterization: An Optimized Model of Endothelial Mechanobiology
    P. H. Gueldner, L. Irons, J. L. Warren +2
    bioRxivPreprintCC BY-NC-NDFull textSystems & synthetic biologybioRxiv
  5. Structural Variant benchmarking frameworks: Parameterization, matching logic, and evaluation assumptions presented through HG002 and NA12878
    Gamze Maden, Mehmet Baysan, Nizamettin Aydın
    PLOS Computational BiologyPeer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Full textGenetics & genomicsPLOS

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{che2026deswan,
  title = {{DE-SWAN analysis of biomarker trajectories over the life course is highly sensitive to age distribution and model parameterization}},
  author = {A. Che and P. Shah and K. T. Tanner and A. A. Cohen},
  howpublished = {bioRxiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.64898/2026.09.29.754760},
  url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.29.754760v1},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - DE-SWAN analysis of biomarker trajectories over the life course is highly sensitive to age distribution and model parameterization
AU  - A. Che
AU  - P. Shah
AU  - K. T. Tanner
AU  - A. A. Cohen
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/29
PB  - bioRxiv
DO  - 10.64898/2026.09.29.754760
UR  - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.29.754760v1
AB  - DE-SWAN is a commonly used method to study how large ensembles of omics biomarkers change across the life course. It has been used to demonstrate apparent repeated accelerations and decelerations of aging rates across the life course, including 2-3 peaks of aging-related changes. This result contradicts what is expected based on the demography of aging and known biological mechanisms. Here, we use simulations to study the robustness of DE-SWAN to the age distribution of the study sample and to choice of window size. We show that under many realistic scenarios, DE-SWAN is highly sensitive to factors unrelated to the underlying rates of change in aging biology. This calls into question the results of previous analyses that have attributed DE-SWAN peaks to acceleration and deceleration of aging. We conclude that the method is unreliable for studying rates of change across the life course under most circumstances.
ER  -