About the Company

Telomere Diagnostics, Inc. (TDx) is a privately held DNA testing company committed to helping people improve their cellular health.

TDx markets the TeloYears® actionable DNA test to help people stay younger and live longer by tracking their cellular age so they can optimize their telomere health. The age of one's cells in TeloYears is a simple yet comprehensive indicator of overall wellness. It is based on the length of one’s telomeres, the dynamic, protective caps on chromosomes that shorten with age, but also can change based on genetics, lifestyle, environment, stress, and other factors. More than 20,000 peer reviewed publications by some of America's most trusted institutions have established links between telomere length and cellular aging, age-related diseases, and mortality in general.

TDx was founded in 2010 by a group of four scientists, one of whom who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2009 for her pioneering work in telomere biology. Its lab in Silicon Valley (Menlo Park, California) is CLIA-certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments as qualified to perform high complexity clinical testing. TDx uses its own proprietary quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay, which is the world’s leading method of measuring Average Telomere Length (ATL).

Beyond TeloYears, the company is actively marketing TeloYears Advanced Ancestry, the world's first next generation sequencing-based ancestry test, and is also developing other potential uses of ATL to address unmet clinical needs in cardiovascular disease and beyond.


The TeloYears lab

Our lab in Silicon Valley, California has been qualified to perform high-complexity clinical testing and is certified by and regulated under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) act. There we measure parts of your DNA called telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of DNA strands that tend to shorten and fray with age. We use our own proprietary quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay, which is the world's leading method of measuring Average Telomere Length (ATL).



The World's Leading Method of Telomere Measurement

Measure Telomeres Diagram

We are the world's only telomere lab whose analytical validation of its measurement method has been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

We use this method to measure your average telomere length by analyzing the DNA found in the many thousands of white blood cells (leukocytes) in just one drop of blood. We use our own unique and proprietary method called the “Cawthon qPCR assay” or quantitative polymerase chain reaction for average telomere length [1; 2]. Using telomere specific primers in our protocol, we quantify the ratio of the telomeric signal (T) relative to the single copy gene signal (S). This T/S ratio reflects the average telomere length (ATL) in your circulating blood. We have developed proprietary methods to tackle the sensitive nature of the qPCR telomere length assay with regard to sample collection, storage, preparation, and assay conditions. We use multiple standards and normalization procedures to ensure precision and accuracy of the assay — yielding a highly reliable measurement with a coefficient of variability typically in the 2% to 3% range.

Then, we enter your ATL into a mathematical model we derived from measuring telomere length at the population level to calculate your age in TeloYears, or the actual age of a typical man or woman whose telomere length is similar to yours.

Use of this in a method may be covered by one or more of U.S. Patent Nos. 7,695,904, 8,048,631, and 9,169,516.


Cawthon, RM. Telomere measurement by quantitative PCR. Nucl. Acids Res. (2002) 30(10):e47.
Cawthon, RM. Telomere length measurement by a novel monochrome multiplex quantitative PCR method. Nucl. Acids Res. (2009) 37(3):e21.



The Telomere Diagnostics SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Test is designed to detect the presence of the underlying virus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19, and is for use with patients who meet current guidance for evaluation. This test has not been FDA cleared or approved.

The SARS-CoV-2 RNA is generally detectable in respiratory specimens during the acute phase of infection. Positive results are indicative of the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA; clinical correlation with patient history and other diagnostic information is necessary to determine patient infection status. Positive results do not rule out bacterial infection or co-infection with other viruses. The agent detected may not be the definite cause of disease. Negative results do not preclude SARS-CoV-2 infection and should not be used as the sole basis for patient treatment or other patient management decisions. Negative results must be combined with clinical observations, patient history, and epidemiological information.

Laboratories within the United States and its territories are required to report all positive (and in many cases, negative) results to the appropriate public health authorities.