Derek M. Huffman, Ph.D.

Dr. Huffman is a Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Medicine, Director of the Health Span Core and Co-Director of the Einstein Nathan Shock Center and NIA T32 Training Grant in the Biology of Aging. He is also a Member of the Einstein Cancer Center and the Einstein-Mt. Sinai Diabetes Research Center. Dr. Huffman's research is focused on three areas:

1. Aging-metabolism interplay
2. Gerotherapeutic drug discovery and characterization
3. Leveraging a geroscience approach to target age-related diseases

Select publications

Milman S, Atzmon G, Huffman DM, Wan J, Crandall JP, Cohen P and Barzilai N. Low Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 Level Predicts Survival in Humans with Exceptional Longevity. Aging Cell 2014 Aug;13(4):769-71 PMC4116456

Huffman DM, Farias-Quipildor G, Mao K, Zhang X, Wan J, Apontes P, Cohen P, Barzilai N. Central IGF-1 Restores Whole-Body Insulin Action in a Model of Age-Related Insulin Resistance and IGF-1 Decline Aging Cell. 2016 Feb;15(1):181-86. PMC4717281

Tabrizian, T, Wang D, Guan F, Hu Z, Beck A, Delahaye F, Huffman DM. Apc inactivation, but not obesity, synergizes with Pten deficiency to drive intestinal stem cell-derived tumorigenesis. Endocr Relat Cancer 2017 Mar 28 PMC5505256

Burgos ES, Walters RO, Huffman DM, Shechter D. A simplified characterization of S-adenosyl-L-methionine-consuming enzymes with 1-Step EZ-MTase: a universal and straightforward coupled-assay for in vitro and in vivo setting. Chem Sci 2017 8, 6601-6612 PMC5676521

Mao K, Farias Quipildor G, Tabrizian T, Guan F, Walters RO, Delahaye F, Hubbard GB, Ikeno Y, Ejima K, Li P, Allison DB, Beltran P, Cohen P, Barzilai N, Huffman DM. Late-life targeting of the IGF-1 receptor improves healthspan and lifespan in female mice. Nat Commun 2018 Jun 19;9(1):2394. PMC6008442

Guan F, Tabrizian T, Novaj A, Nakanishi M, Rosenberg DW, Huffman DM. Dietary walnuts protect against obesity-driven intestinal stem cell decline and tumorigenesis Front Nutr 2018 May 31;5:37. PMC5990619

Choi J, Rakhilin N, Gadamsetty P, Joe DJ, Lipkin SM, Tabrizian T, Huffman DM, Shen X, Nishimura N. Rapid recovery of crypt patterns after focal damage requires coordinated cell motion instead of proliferation and is impaired by aging. Sci Rep 2018 Jul 20;8(1):10989. PMC6054609

Walters RO, Arias E, Diaz A, Burgos ES, Guan F, Tiano S, Mao K, Green CL, Qiu Y, Shah H, Wang D, Hudgins AD, Tabrizian T, Tosti V, Shechter D, Fontana L, Kurland IJ, Barzilai N, Cuervo AM, Promislow DEL, Huffman DM. Sarcosine is uniquely modulated by aging and dietary restriction in rodents and humans Cell Rep 2018 Oct 16;25(3):663-676.e6. PMC6280974

Farias-Quipildor G, Mao K, Hu Z, Novaj A, Cui MH, Gulinello M, Branch CA, Gubbi S, Patel K, Moellering DR, Tarantini S, Kiss T, Yabluchanskiy A, Ungvari Z, Sonntag WE, Huffman DM. Central IGF-1 reduces depressive-like behavior and improves cognitive and physical performance with aging preferentially in male mice Geroscience 2019 May 10 PMC654474

Kiss T, Tarantini S, Csipo T, Balasubramanian P, Nyúl-Tóth Á, Yabluchanskiy A, Wren JD, Garman L, Huffman DM, Csiszar A, Ungvari Z. Circulating anti-geronic factors from heterochronic parabionts promote vascular rejuvenation in aged mice: transcriptional footprint of mitochondrial protection, attenuation of oxidative stress, and rescue of endothelial function by young blood. Geroscience. 2020 Mar 15 PMC7205954

Carey M, Lontchi-Yimagou E, Mitchell W, Reda S, Zhang K, Kehlenbrink S, Koppaka S, Maginley SR, Aleksic S, Bhansali S, Huffman DM, Hawkins M. Central KATP Channels Modulate Glucose Effectiveness in Humans and Rodents. Diabetes 2020 Mar 26 PMC7243288

Yousefzadeh MJ, Wilkinson JE, Hughes B, Gadela N, Ladiges WC, Vo N, Niedernhofer LJ, Huffman DM and Robbins PD. Heterochronic parabiosis regulates the extent of cellular senescence in multiple tissues. Geroscience 2020 Jun42(3)951-961. PMC32285290

Lei C, Colangelo D, Patil P, Li V, Ngo K, Wang D, Dong Q, Yousefzadeh MJ, Lin H, Lee J, Kang J, Sowa G, Wyss-Coray T, Niedernhofer LJ, Robbins PD, Huffman DM, Vo N. Influences of circulatory factors on intervertebral disc aging phenotype. Aging 2020 Jun 11; 12(12)12285-12304  PMC7343497

Farias-Quipildor G, Mao K, Beltran P, Barzilai N, Huffman DM. Modulation of Glucose Production by Central Insulin Requires IGF-1 Receptors in AgRP Neurons. Diabetes 2021 Jul 20:db210028. PMC8928909

Engel MG, Smith J, Mao K, Quipildor GF, Cui MH, Gulinello M, Branch CA, Gandy SE, Huffman DM. Evidence for preserved insulin responsiveness in the aging rat brain. Geroscience. 2022 Jul 8.

Rodriguez SL, Carver CM, Dosch AJ, Huffman DM, Duke Boynton FD, Ayasoufi K, Schafer MJ. An optimized mouse parabiosis protocol for investigation of aging and rejuvenative mechanisms Front. Aging Oct 6 2022 PMC9582328

Novaj A, Engel MG, Wang R, Mao K, Xue X, Amir Y, Atzmon G, Huffman DM. Dietary walnuts preserve aspects of health span and alter the hippocampal lipidome in aged high-fat diet-fed mice. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24;24(3):2314 PMC9916809

Choi J, Houston M, Wang R, Ye K, Li W, Zhang X, Huffman DM, Augenlicht LH. Intestinal stem cell aging at single-cell resolution: functional perturbations alter cell developmental trajectory reversed by gerotherapeutics. Aging Cell 2023 Mar 2;e13802. PMC10186593

Adwan SH, Sharvit L, Huffman DM, Manov I, Atzmon G, Shams I. Damage-Free Shortening of telomeres is a potential strategy supporting blind mole-rat longevity. Genes (Basel). 2023 Mar 31;14(4);845. PMC10137574

Gulej R, Nyúl-Tóth Á, Csik B, Petersen B, Faakye J, Negri S, Chandragiri SS, Mukli P, Yabluchanskiy A, Conley S, Huffman DM, Csiszar A, Tarantini S, Ungvari Z. Rejuvenation of cerebromicrovascular function in aged mice through heterochronic parabiosis: insights into neurovascular coupling and the impact of young blood factors. Geroscience 2024 Feb;46(1):327-47. PMC10828280

Select reviews and editorials

Barzilai N, Huffman DM, Muzumdar RH, and Bartke A. Perspectives in Diabetes: The Critical Role of Metabolic Pathways in Aging. Diabetes 2012 61(6): 1315-22. PMCID: PMC3357299

Chusyd DE, Wang D, Huffman DM, Nagy TR. Relationships between rodent white adipose fat pads and human white adipose fat depots Front Nutr 2016 Apr 19;3:10 PMC4835715

Huffman DM, Schafer MJ, LeBrasseur NK. Energetic interventions for healthspan and resiliency with aging. Exp Gerontol 2016 May 31 PMC5133182

Milman S, Huffman DM, Barzilai N. The Somatotropic Axis in Human Aging: Framework for the Current State of Knowledge and Future Research. Cell Metab 2016 Jun 14;23(6):980-9 PMCID: PMC4919980

Huffman DM, Justice J, Stout MB, Kirkland JL, Barzilai N, Austad SN. Evaluating Healthspan in Pre-Clinical Models of Aging and Disease: Guidelines, Challenges and Opportunities for Geroscience.  Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2016 Aug 16 PMC5055649

Gubbi S, Farias Quipildor G, Barzilai N, Huffman DM, Milman S. IGF-1: The Jekyll & Hyde of the aging brain. 2018 J Mol Endocrinol 2018 Jul;61(1):T171-T185. PMC5988994

Gandy S, Huffman DM. Unexpected systemic phenotypes result from focal combined deficiencies of forebrain insulin receptor/IGF-1 receptor signaling. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2019 Mar 11. PMC6442574

Carter CS, Richardson A, Huffman DM, Austad S. Bring Back the Rat! J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2020 Feb 14;75(3):405-415 PMC7021637

Huffman DM, Csiszar A, Ungvari Z. Heterochronic blood exchange attenuates age-related neuroinflammation and confers cognitive benefits: do microvascular protective effects play a role? Geroscience. 2021 Feb;43(1):111-113. doi: 10.1007/s11357-021-00324-2. Epub 2021 Jan 28.

Cuervo AM, Huffman DM, Vijg J, Milman S, Singh R, Barzilai N. Einstein-Nathan Shock Center: translating the hallmarks of aging to extend human health span Geroscience 2021 Aug 31.

Lei H, Huffman DM, Salmon AB, LeBrasseur NK, Carter C, Richardson A, Austad S, Ladiges W. Resilience to aging is a heterogeneous characteristic defined by physical stressors. Aging Pathobiol Ther. 2022;4(1):19-22. doi: 10.31491/apt.2022.03.076. PMC903808

Yousefzadeh MJ, Robbins PD, Huffman DM. Heterochronic parabiosis: a valuable tool to investigate cellular senescence and other hallmarks of aging. Aging (Albany NY). 2022 Apr 13;14(7):3325-3328. PMC9037264