SARDINE unlocks EWAS summary statistics for large-scale epigenetic biomarker analysis

SARDINE reproduces individual-level epigenetic clock–phenotype association estimates across 38 epigenetic biomarkers and four phenotypes in 15,677 individuals using EWAS summary statistics.

• Why it matters: Epigenetic clocks are widely used, but their interpretation and utility are uncertain, while EWAS summary statistics are not yet leveraged to evaluate these biomarkers systematically.
• What they did: The framework estimates clock–phenotype links from EWAS summary statistics, clock weights, and reference methylation covariance, then validates accuracy against individual-level estimates.
• The result: Applied to multiple EWAS datasets, SARDINE finds substantial heterogeneity in biomarker associations with aging, diseases, and lifestyle factors, enabling scalable biomarker-level evaluation without individual data.

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