Telomere research entering the big data era

Telomeres, the caps of chromosomes, shorten with age. Using qPCR, Nilhesh Samani, Veryan Codd and colleagues measured leukocyte telomere length in close to half a million individuals from the UK Biobank, confirming several previous associations. This dataset offers many new opportunities to explore associations between leukocyte telomere length and other traits relevant to human aging and health.