High-Throughput Direct-Measurement of Telomere Length

Telomeres are linear chromosome end-capping repetitive DNA sequences. They serve to protect the ends of chromosomes from undesirable fusion events, thus integrity and length are crucial for stability. Natural attrition as well as mutations can affect telomere integrity and length resulting in chromosome instability, senescence, cell death and human diseases. As such, evaluating telomere length is of great interest, not only for understanding fundamental telomere biology, but also as a biomarker for predicting risk for age-related diseases and mortality. It may also be useful in determining treatment decision for certain diseases.  However, accurate, reliable and absolute length measurements are needed for telomere assessments to have useful utility.