MOSAIC: a longitudinal phenotypic clock to dissect organismal aging trajectories in <i>C. elegans</i>
), a non-invasive phenotypic clock that estimates biological age longitudinally at single-organism resolution. Leveraging ∼3'750 animals, ∼230'000 observations and 29 phenotypic features, MOSAIC predicts biological age with high accuracy and resolves organism-wide aging trajectories at high temporal resolution. Beyond age prediction, MOSAIC decomposes biological age into contributions from distinct physiological modules, enabling mechanistic interpretation of organismal decline. Applying MOSAIC to natural lifespan variation, dietary restriction, longevity mutants and pharmacological interventions reveals that lifespan extension can emerge through distinct, time-dependent phenotypic trajectories rather than a uniform slowing of aging. Interventions with similar effects on longevity produce divergent biological-age trajectories and distinct combinations of younger and older traits, highlighting context-dependent physiological trade-offs. MOSAIC provides a scalable, non-invasive framework to repeatedly quantify biological age across the lifespan and to compare interventions based on how they reshape aging trajectories.
Authors
- Myriam Chimen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3567-1731)
- Mathieu Membrez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2771-4452)
- Lina Verbakel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0490-8406)
- Laurent Mouchiroud
- Florence Solari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4173-8314)
- Matteo Cornaglia
- Marie Pierron (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7117-4169)
- Morgane Bourgeois
- Alexandre Pierre Vaudano
- Lazar Stojkovic
- Christopher Neal
Institutions
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Inserm (FR)
- Nestlé (Switzerland) (CH)
- ESI Group (Switzerland) (CH)
- Institut NeuroMyoGène (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Published
- 2026-04-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.23.720365
- Primary Topic
- Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche