Tired of Epigenetic Clocks? Finally, a Test Measuring Function, Not Just Biological Age

In the last decade, dozen of new epigenetic clock launched, the most famous being Horvath’s. So why should the longevity field care about yet another clock? Most clocks reveal your biological age, but still fall short of what people actually care about: functional age. The age in which they have the best quality of life, something people like to spend a significant money for.

That’s why the new IC Clock stands out. Developed by the Buck Institute and leading European researchers, this tool isn’t just another measure of how many years you have left or how many diseases you can dodge. It’s the first clock designed to estimate functionality.

And crucially, in head-to-head studies, the IC Clock outperformed all previous clocks at predicting mortality. So if you’ve ever rolled your eyes at “the latest clock,” this might be the first one that deserves your attention.

Why This Matters for the Longevity Field

The real reason the IC Clock could be a game changer is because people don’t just want to live longer, they want to maximize the quality of their life. Most consumers and investors are much more interested in staying independent and enjoying life, than simply knowing their “biological age.” That’s why a tool that tracks functional aging could attract far more interest, engagement, and money, than clocks just focused on lifespan.

What makes the IC clock unique

• IC includes six domains: mobility, cognition, mental health, vision, hearing, and nutrition/vitality.

• Developed using blood-based DNA methylation signals, it offers a non-invasive, scalable test of healthy aging.

• Works not just in blood but also in saliva, enabling non-invasive, low-cost testing.

Potential Advantages and Impact

• The IC Clock could become a standard for measuring results in clinical trials and population studies.

• The WHO already recognizes IC decline as a condition, the US FDA does not, so the IC Clock could be a bridge to policy change.

• The IC Clock is a central tool in the XPRIZE Healthspan competition, where teams aim to reverse 10–20 years of age-related decline in key functions within just one year.

Comparison: IC Clock vs. Other Epigenetic Clocks

• Outperformed previous clocks in predicting mortality: Individuals with high IC scores lived an average of 5.5 years longer than those with low scores.

• Horvath’s clock and other early clocks focused on predicting chronological age using methylation patterns.

• The IC Clock is unique in measuring “intrinsic capacity”, which is function. Not

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