Steve Horvath

Steve Horvath, PhD, ScD, is a geroscientist whose research bridges biomarkers, precision medicine, genomics and comparative biology. He is Professor of Medicine and Director of Aging Biology Research in the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Trained in mathematics (PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and biostatistics (ScD, Harvard University), he is best known for epigenetic clocks: estimators of biological age based on DNA methylation. His work began with the first saliva-based epigenetic clock in 2011. In 2013 he developed the first multi-tissue clock, which estimates biological age across diverse human tissues and cell types. With colleagues he went on to develop second-generation clocks, such as PhenoAge and GrimAge, that predict disease and mortality risk. In 2023 the Mammalian Methylation Consortium, which he led, produced the universal pan-mammalian clock: a single mathematical formula that measures aging across mammalian species. His lab also developed weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), a widely used method in systems biology. Today his research asks which methylation changes cause aging rather than merely track it, and how clocks can serve as endpoints in clinical trials of interventions that slow aging. He founded the non-profit Epigenetic Clock Development Foundation. His honors include the Nathan W. Shock Award, the Allen Distinguished Investigator Award and the 2026 Luminary Award of the Precision Medicine World Conference. He has been named on Clarivate’s annual list of the world’s most influential scientific researchers every year since 2018.