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Could measuring immune health reshape medical care?
Hugo J. W. L. Aerts is director of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Program, Mass General Brigham, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and a professor at Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
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Nicolai J. Birkbak is a professor of cancer evolution and bioinformatics in the Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, and in the Department of Molecular Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital.
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John S. Tsang is the founding director of the Yale Center for Systems and Engineering Immunology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, and a professor in the departments of Immunobiology and Biomedical Engineering, Yale University.
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Eric J. Topol is a professor and executive vice-president of Scripps Research, La Jolla, California, USA.
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The immune system is central to human health. When it fails, people can become more susceptible to infection and cancer. When misdirected, it can attack the body’s own tissues. And as it ages, it can contribute to chronic disease.
People of the same age can have strikingly distinct immune systems, shaped by genetics and by environmental and lifestyle factors, including air pollution, smoking, diet and past infections1,2. Growing evidence suggests that variation in the immune system’s ‘biological age’ — the rate at which it has aged, which is distinct from chronological age — matters for health. This variation has been linked to neurodegeneration, cancer and mortality risk3.