Researcher

Morgan Levine

Last updated 2026-05-17· 1 min read

Reviewed by the Ultimate Longevity Bible editorial team. Educational reference — not medical advice. See disclaimer.

Background

Morgan Levine trained in gerontology and biostatistics. Faculty at Yale School of Medicine before joining Altos Labs.

Key contributions

PhenoAge — a clinical-biomarker biological-age score from 9 standard lab values, predictive of all-cause mortality.
DNAm-PhenoAge — projects PhenoAge onto DNA methylation data; the first “second-generation” epigenetic clock trained on phenotypes rather than chronological age.
PCPhenoAge / PCGrimAge — principal-component versions that reduce measurement noise.
Work on epigenetic aging trajectories, intervention response, and cancer-incidence prediction.

Public communication

Authored True Age (2022), a popular book on biological age. Active public communicator on biological-age interpretation.

Now

Joined Altos Labs in 2022. Continues work on biomarker-based biological age and intervention-trial endpoints.

Contributions

PhenoAge: methylation-based biological-age clock trained on clinical biomarkers (albumin, creatinine, glucose, C-reactive protein, others) rather than chronological age; PhenoAge predicts mortality more strongly than chronological age alone.
DunedinPACE co-development: with Belsky and Moffitt group, developed the pace-of-aging metric from the Dunedin cohort.
Yale to Altos Labs to Altos: her lab's transition to Altos reflects the broader migration of aging-clock talent into commercial reprogramming ventures.

Style and influence

Combines rigorous biostatistical training with biological interpretation of aging biomarkers. One of the field's most influential voices on how to actually measure aging in humans — which matters because interventions can only be evaluated with valid biomarkers.

References

Levine, M. E. et al. An epigenetic biomarker of aging for lifespan and healthspan. Aging 10, 573–591 (2018).