Bridging the Omics of Protein Landscape of Aging and Disease: New Insights and Opportunities
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 41
Special Issue Editor
Interests: clinical proteomics; biomarkers; age-related diseases; ocular diseases; renal diseases; cardiovascular diseases
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Although life expectancy has risen markedly in recent decades, healthy life expectancy has not kept pace, contributing to global population aging and the growing burden of age-related diseases. Aging is strongly associated with frailty and is a primary driver of chronic conditions, neurodegenerative disorders, and ocular pathologies. While these conditions share molecular hallmarks, the mechanisms linking aging to disease remain incompletely understood.
Proteomics has emerged as a powerful tool to explore these mechanisms, offering high-resolution insights into proteome dynamics and complexity. Recent advances in discovery proteomics, including cutting-edge technologies and automated sample preparation, now allow researchers to map proteomic changes during aging and disease with unprecedented depth, sensitivity, and precision. In parallel, targeted proteomics is critical for clinical translation, enabling biomarker verification and validation in large cohorts, as well as precise quantification of low-abundance proteins in biological fluids, tissues, and extracellular vesicles (EVs). Finally, artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced bioinformatics are revolutionizing proteomics by facilitating large-scale data integration and interpretation, revealing hidden molecular patterns, and accelerating biomarker discovery.
This Special Issue will highlight recent advances in proteomic methodologies and applications that bridge fundamental research on aging with clinical translation. By integrating proteomics with other OMICS and advanced bioinformatics approaches, this collection aims to provide a comprehensive view of how age-dependent proteome alterations contribute to disease onset and progression. We welcome submissions that explore mechanistic insights and candidate protein biomarkers or therapeutic targets to counteract age-related diseases. We are actively seeking a proteinomics expert to join us as a co-Guest Editor for this Special Issue.
Topics of interest:
- Proteomic signatures of aging and age-related diseases at the cellular, tissue, biofluid, and organismal levels.
- Integration of proteomics with other OMICS (transcriptomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, and epigenomics) to uncover new layers of biological knowledge.
- Novel discovery approaches, including data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry (DIA-MS), tandem mass tag (TMT) quantification, single-cell, and spatial proteomics in aging research.
- Advances in targeted proteomics for biomarker verification and validation, including established methods such as parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) and selected reaction monitoring (SRM), as well as emerging approaches like SureQuant, targeted single-cell proteomics, Proximity Extension Assay (e.g., Olink), and SomaScan (aptamer-based proteomics).
- Discovery of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in biological fluids and extracellular vesicles for early detection of aging signatures driving chronic, degenerative, and ocular diseases.
AI- and bioinformatics-driven tools for large-scale proteomics in aging research, enabling multi-omics integration, data interpretation, and predictive modeling.
Dr. Fátima Milhano Santos
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- age-related disease
- aging
- biomarkers
- chronic diseases
- neurodegenerative diseases
- ocular diseases
- proteomics
- kidney diseases
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