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An open science study of ageing in companion dogs

Nature volume 602, pages 51–57 (2022)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 08 August 2022

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Abstract

The Dog Aging Project is a long-term longitudinal study of ageing in tens of thousands of companion dogs. The domestic dog is among the most variable mammal species in terms of morphology, behaviour, risk of age-related disease and life expectancy. Given that dogs share the human environment and have a sophisticated healthcare system but are much shorter-lived than people, they offer a unique opportunity to identify the genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors associated with healthy lifespan. To take advantage of this opportunity, the Dog Aging Project will collect extensive survey data, environmental information, electronic veterinary medical records, genome-wide sequence information, clinicopathology and molecular phenotypes derived from blood cells, plasma and faecal samples. Here, we describe the specific goals and design of the Dog Aging Project and discuss the potential for this open-data, community science study to greatly enhance understanding of ageing in a genetically variable, socially relevant species living in a complex environment.

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Fig. 1: Structure of the DAP cohorts.
Fig. 2: DAP integration.
Fig. 3: Biospecimen and environmental measures.

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Data availability

The data used to generate Fig. 1b, c are freely available for download at https://data.dogagingproject.org.

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Acknowledgements

All dog research described here, including informed owner consent, is approved by the Texas A&M University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, under AUPs 2018-0401 CAM and 2018-0368 CAM. The DAP is supported by grant U19AG057377 from the National Institute on Aging, a part of the National Institutes of Health, and by private donations. We thank S. Moon for help in preparing figures.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, College Station, TX, USA

    Kate E. Creevy, Brian G. Barnett, Lucy Chou, Jeremy Evans, Jonathan M. Levine, Kellyn E. McNulty, Amanda K. Tinkle & M. Katherine Tolbert

  2. Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Joshua M. Akey & William Thistlethwaite

  3. Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA

    Matt Kaeberlein, Daniel E. L. Promislow, Brooke Benton, Erica C. Jonlin & Silvan R. Urfer

  4. Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Daniel E. L. Promislow

  5. Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Elhanan Borenstein

  6. Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Elhanan Borenstein

  7. Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA

    Elhanan Borenstein

  8. Cornell Veterinary Biobank, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Marta G. Castelhano

  9. Department of Sociology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Devin Collins, Kyle Crowder & Hannah Lee

  10. Department of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery, University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, Athens, GA, USA

    Amanda E. Coleman

  11. Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, Seattle, WA, USA

    Kyle Crowder & Matthew D. Dunbar

  12. Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology, Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, College Station, TX, USA

    Virginia R. Fajt

  13. Department of Family Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Annette L. Fitzpatrick

  14. Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Annette L. Fitzpatrick & Stephen M. Schwartz

  15. Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Annette L. Fitzpatrick

  16. Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, College Station, TX, USA

    Unity Jeffery

  17. Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Erica C. Jonlin

  18. Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    Elinor K. Karlsson & Kathleen Morrill

  19. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Elinor K. Karlsson

  20. Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Kathleen F. Kerr, Robyn L. McClelland & Yunbi Nam

  21. Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Jing Ma

  22. Department of Population Health Sciences, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Audrey Ruple

  23. Epidemiology Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Stephen M. Schwartz

  24. Collaborative Health Studies Coordinating Center, Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Sandi Shrager

  25. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Noah Snyder-Mackler

  26. Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Noah Snyder-Mackler

  27. School for Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Noah Snyder-Mackler

  28. Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA

    Benjamin S. Wilfond

  29. Division of Bioethics and Palliative Care, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA

    Benjamin S. Wilfond

Authors
  1. Kate E. Creevy
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  2. Joshua M. Akey
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  3. Matt Kaeberlein
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  4. Daniel E. L. Promislow
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Consortia

The Dog Aging Project Consortium

  • Kate E. Creevy
  • , Joshua M. Akey
  • , Matt Kaeberlein
  • , Daniel E. L. Promislow
  • , Brian G. Barnett
  • , Brooke Benton
  • , Elhanan Borenstein
  • , Marta G. Castelhano
  • , Lucy Chou
  • , Devin Collins
  • , Amanda E. Coleman
  • , Kyle Crowder
  • , Matthew D. Dunbar
  • , Jeremy Evans
  • , Virginia R. Fajt
  • , Annette L. Fitzpatrick
  • , Unity Jeffery
  • , Erica C. Jonlin
  • , Elinor K. Karlsson
  • , Kathleen F. Kerr
  • , Hannah Lee
  • , Jonathan M. Levine
  • , Jing Ma
  • , Robyn L. McClelland
  • , Kellyn E. McNulty
  • , Kathleen Morrill
  • , Yunbi Nam
  • , Audrey Ruple
  • , Stephen M. Schwartz
  • , Sandi Shrager
  • , Noah Snyder-Mackler
  • , William Thistlethwaite
  • , Amanda K. Tinkle
  • , M. Katherine Tolbert
  • , Silvan R. Urfer
  •  & Benjamin S. Wilfond

Contributions

K.E.C., M.K. and D.E.L.P. conceived of the DAP; J.M.A., K.E.C., M.K. and D.E.L.P. wrote the initial draft of this paper. All authors, including consortium authors, have been involved in the design and implementation of DAP goals, infrastructure and activities, and they have had the opportunity to participate in editing both form and content of this paper and have approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel E. L. Promislow.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature thanks Steven Austad, Dario Valenzano and Eric Verdin for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Creevy, K.E., Akey, J.M., Kaeberlein, M. et al. An open science study of ageing in companion dogs. Nature 602, 51–57 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04282-9

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