Aging is a complex biological process influenced by a range of genetic, environmental, and physiological factors. Studying normal aging can help us better comprehend age related diseases and potentially lead to the identification of therapeutic targets. In this study, we use large transcriptomes collected from mouse and human brains (Tabula Muris and GTEx) to investigate genes, gene networks, and biological pathways that are selectively engaged at different biological ages through brain aging. We use a novel network biology platform called NetDecoder to determine which genes are highly utilized within brain specific biological networks; high utility genes are those that encode for important proteins that are crucial to a specific function, even if they are not differentially expressed. Our approach is unique because we can recover genes relating to the aging brain that are not differentially expressed, meaning they likely would not be pinpointed by other labs.
