Scientists develop blood-based indicator of organ age
Researchers have developed a blood-based indicator of age of an organ that can be used to assess its current age and predict the risk of a disease that might affect it 10 years later. One’s biological age measures how well the body functions, compared to the chronological age. However, the organs inside the body are all said to be ageing at different speeds.
The researchers, including those from the US’ Stanford University, looked at 11 separate organ systems — brain, muscle, heart, lung, arteries, liver, kidneys, pancreas, immune system, intestine and fat. “We’ve developed a blood-based indicator of the age of your organs. With this indicator, we can assess the age of an organ today and predict the odds of your getting a disease associated with that organ 10 years later," senior author Tony Wyss-Coray, professor of neurology and neurological sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, said. Findings published in the journal Nature Medicine showed that the biological age of one particular organ, the brain, plays an “outsized" role in determining how long an individual might live.
Nearly 45,000 people of ages 40 to 70 were randomly selected from the UK Biobank and monitored for up to 17 years for changes in their health status. Using a commercially available lab technology, the researchers counted amounts of about 3,000 proteins in each participant’s blood. Around 15 per cent of the proteins could be traced to single-organ origins, and many others to multiple-organ generation. An algorithm was developed that found how much the composite protein “signature" for each organ being assessed differed from the overall average for people of that age. Thus, a biological age was assigned to each of the 11 distinct organs or organ systems assessed for each participant using ‘plasma proteomics’, a large-scale analysis of proteins circulating in the blood plasma. One-third of the participants were found to have at least one organ that was either ‘extremely aged’ or ‘extremely youthful’, while one in four had multiple ‘extremely aged’ or ‘extremely youthful’ organs. For the brain, ‘extremely aged’ translated to being among the 6-7 per cent of the study participants’ brains whose protein signatures fell at one end of the biological-age distribution, and ‘extremely youthful’ brains fell into the 6-7 per cent at the opposite end. Further, the link between having an extremely aged brain and developing Alzheimer’s disease was found to be particularly powerful — 3.1 times that of one with a normally aging brain. However, an extremely youthful brain was especially protective against Alzheimer’s — barely one-fourth that of a person with a normally aged brain, the researchers found. “The brain is the gatekeeper of longevity. If you’ve got an old brain, you have an increased likelihood of mortality. If you’ve got a young brain, you’re probably going to live longer," Wyss-Coray said. Wyss-Coray added that brain age was the best single predictor of overall mortality. Having an extremely aged brain increased the participants’ risk of dying by 182 per cent over a roughly 15-year period, while those with extremely youthful brains had an overall 40 per cent reduction in risk of dying over the same duration, he said.
From Lotus to Bamboo Orchid: 2 Indian airports named among world’s most beautiful
Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) and Terminal 2 of Guwahati’s Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (LGBIA) have secured places on the World’s Most Beautiful Airports List 2026, earning international recognition at the prestigious Prix Versailles architecture and design awards and putting India’s rapidly evolving aviation infrastructure in the global spotlight.
Presented annually at UNESCO headquarters in Paris since 2015, the Prix Versailles is among the world’s most respected architecture and design awards. It honours newly developed airports and terminals that go beyond conventional infrastructure and offer what organisers describe as a richer and more harmonious vision of the world through design, innovation and cultural identity.
At Navi Mumbai International Airport, the spotlight is on Terminal 1’s distinctive lotus-inspired architecture. The terminal has been recognised for its futuristic design language and its integration of technology, art and functionality. Conceived as a world-class gateway, the airport reflects India’s ambitions as a modern global economy while seeking to deliver a seamless passenger experience.
Guwahati Airport’s Terminal 2 earned recognition for a design inspired by the Bamboo Orchid, a symbol closely associated with the biodiversity of the Northeast. The terminal’s architectural language celebrates the region’s natural heritage while incorporating a highly functional and sustainable design envelope, creating a structure that is both environmentally conscious and visually striking.
The recognition marks a significant achievement for Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL), which operates both airports. The double entry highlights the growing global attention being drawn by India’s new-generation airport projects that seek to blend architectural excellence, sustainability and passenger experience.
According to airport officials, the operator has increasingly focused on building airports that reflect local culture, embrace sustainable practices and offer globally competitive passenger facilities.
The two Indian airports feature alongside major international aviation hubs in Guangzhou, China; Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Kandal Stueng, Cambodia; Pittsburgh, United States; and San Diego, United States, all of which were selected for their architectural distinction and innovative design.
The Prix Versailles awards promote the idea of “intelligent sustainability", where culture, architecture and environmental responsibility come together in shaping future infrastructure.
Eight-year logjam over Kishau dam project ends, claims Himachal govt after CM’s meeting with Shah
The Himachal Pradesh government on Tuesday claimed that the Centre has cleared bottlenecks in the proposed 422 MW Kishau dam project, with the state’s Rs 2,000 crore share in the power component to be now borne by the beneficiary states of the project’s water component. Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana are the beneficiary states would take on the cost, according to a statement issued here. The decision paves the way for the construction of the project, proposed to be built on the Tons river along the Uttarakhand-Himachal Pradesh border at an estimated cost of around Rs 15,000 crore, the government said. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu strongly presented the state’s case during a high-level meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday and succeeded in breaking the eight-year-old deadlock over bearing the financial cost, the statement said. Sukhu said the previous state government had agreed to contribute Rs 800 crore as Himachal Pradesh’s share towards the project, but his government refused to do so, citing the state’s limited financial resources. He also said that while the Centre is providing a 90 per cent grant for the water component of the project, similar assistance is not being extended for the power component. The chief minister further said the state would bear the maximum impact of the project as people in the affected area would be displaced. Therefore, it would be unfair to impose an additional financial burden on Himachal Pradesh, and its contribution towards national progress should be compensated suitably, he added, according to the statement. He said Himachal Pradesh would receive its share of 100 crore units of electricity annually from the project’s power component after its completion, amounting to about Rs 600 crore a year, which would further strengthen the state’s financial resources.
