Dr. Joris Deelen

Joris Deelen, Ph.D. is the Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing. His expertise lies in genetics and biomarkers of human aging, contributing significantly to the understanding of why some individuals age more healthily than others.

His research group Deleen is also part of The Stem Cell Network North Rhine-Westphalia and CECAD (Cologne Excellence Cluster on Aging and Aging-Associated Diseases) where he is the Principle Investigator.

Why do some people age more healthily than others? is the main question Joris tries to address in his research group. He is studying the genetic mechanisms underlying healthy aging in humans, mainly by investigating the effect of genetic variants unique to long-lived individuals on the functioning of pathways implicated in aging or age-related diseases.

Joris is trying to identify and validate biomarkers of healthy aging using data from large-scale international collaborations of human studies. Read Multivariate genomic scan implicates novel loci and haem metabolism in human ageing.

His research is focused on two main aims:

• Functional characterization of rare protein-altering genetic variants involved in healthy aging
• Establish human aging studies in Cologne to determine the efficacy of previously identified biomarkers of healthy aging in clinical studies.

To address these aims, his lab uses cellular models and mice, as well as samples from older humans, 70 and up. They make use of the CRISPR/Cas9 system to generate transgenic cell lines and model organisms harboring the identified variants and subsequently measure their functional effects in vitro and in vivo. This work is supported by both an ERC Starting Grant and a Longevity Impetus Grant.

Read From mutation to mechanism: deciphering the molecular function of genetic variants linked to human ageing, A metabolic profile of all-cause mortality risk identified in an observational study of 44,168 individuals, and A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies multiple longevity genes.

His lab also hosts the Ph.D. research program Genetics and Biomarkers of Human Ageing.

Joris earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Epidemiology in 2014 from Leiden University with his research project focused on finding genetic determinants for healthy aging and longevity within the framework of the Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Ageing (NCHA). His thesis was on Genetic and biomarker studies of human longevity.

He earned his Master’s Degree of Science in 2008 and his Bachelor’s Degree of Science in 2006, both in Biomedical Sciences from Leiden University.

He did his postdoctoral research between 2013 and 2016 in Molecular Epidemiology at the Leiden University Medical Center. He was mainly involved in the data analysis of the Growing Old Together study. The main objective of this study was to determine the effect of a 3-month (13 weeks) intervention with 25% lowered energy expenditure (12.5% caloric restriction and 12.5% increased physical activity) on metabolic profiles in humans.

In 2016, Joris began his second postdoctoral research in Biological Mechanisms of Ageing at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, before he was promoted to independent Research Group Leader in 2020.

Watch Does genetic make-up hold the key to healthy longevity?, Identification and characterisation of genetic variants linked to longevity, Studying the genetic make-up of long-lived individuals with Joris Deelen, Unfreeze your Science — “Why are some people so long-lived?” with Dr. Joris Deelen, and Centenarians, Biological Clocks and Reversing Ageing, ft. Dr Jori Deelen.

Read Defining the role of common variation in the genomic and biological architecture of adult human height, New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution, Genetic analysis of over 1 million people identifies 535 new loci associated with blood pressure traits, and Facing up to the global challenge of ageing.

Listen to “Why are some people so long-lived?” with Dr. Joris and Beyond Mice Models: Exploring Human Aging Genetics with Dr. Joris Deelen on The VitaDAO Aging Science Podcast.

Visit his LinkedIn profile, Google Scholar page, and ResearchGate page. Follow him on Research, ORCiD, Loop, and Twitter.