Nir Barzilai, M.D.

Dr. Nir Barzilai is the Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Chair of Aging Research, Professor of Medicine and Genetics, Director of the Institute for Geroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Director of the BIO-Vital Program. He is a leading figure in geroscience and serves as the elected President of the Global Academy for Health & Lifespan Research. His work has helped advance a major shift in medicine: moving beyond treating individual diseases to targeting the biology of aging itself to extend healthspan.

Dr. Barzilai’s research focuses on fundamental mechanisms of aging, including the biological effects of nutrients on lifespan and the genetic determinants of exceptional longevity. His studies of centenarians helped establish the concept that exceptionally long-lived individuals may carry protective genes that delay aging and reduce vulnerability to age-related diseases. He has identified several human longevity genes and continues to characterize the phenotypes and genotypes of people with exceptional longevity through an NIH-supported Program Project. These discoveries have informed therapeutic development, including CETP- and APOC3-targeted approaches.

He also leads major initiatives in aging translational  research. Under the auspices of AFAR, he launched the SuperAgers Family Study, which aims to recruit 10,000 families of centenarians. He is Principal Investigator of the FAST initiative, a collaboration between AFAR and ARPA-H designed to identify biomarkers of aging from existing clinical trials and determine which markers change in response to gerotherapeutics. Dr. Barzilai also conceived the multicenter TAME (Targeting Aging with Metformin) study, a landmark effort to establish biological aging as a target for therapeutic intervention.

Dr. Barzilai has received numerous grants and awards from organizations including the National Institute on Aging, AFAR, ARPA-H, and the Ellison Medical Foundation. He has published more than 370 peer-reviewed papers, reviews, and textbook chapters, and has advised the NIH on multiple projects, initiatives, and study sections, including NIA Biology. He serves on the AFAR Board, previously served as its Scientific Director, and is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Longevity Biotech Association and the Council of the Healthy Longevity Medicine Society. He is a Fellow of the Association of American Physicians and the New York Academy of Medicine, and his honors include the Beeson Award, Senior Ellison Foundation Award, Paul Glenn Foundation Award, NIA Nathan Shock Award, Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction in Aging Research, Rifkin Lectureship, and the IPSEN Longevity Award.

His work has been featured widely in major newspapers, magazines, podcasts, television programs, documentaries, and TEDx and TEDMED talks. He appears prominently in Ron Howard’s National Geographic documentary “The Age of Aging” and has advised or presented on the promise of targeting aging to leaders in government, industry, finance, and faith-based institutions, including the Prime Minister’s Offices of Singapore and Israel, the Vatican, the Milken Institute, and the World Economic Forum in Davos. His book, Age Later, was published in 2020.

1. Genomic of Exceptional Longevity in humans.
   1. Barzilai N, Atzmon G, Schechter C, Schaefer E, Lipton R, Cheng S, Shuldiner AR. Unique lipoprotein phenotype and genotype associated with exceptional longevity. JAMA. 2003. 290:2030-40
   2. Atzmon G, … Barzilai N: Lipoprotein genotype and conserved pathway for exceptional longevity in humans. PLoS Biol. 2006 Apr;4(4):e113. PMC1413567.
   3. Atzmon G, … , Barzilai N, Govindaraju DR, Suh Y. Genetic variation in human telomerase is associated with telomere length in Ashkenazi centenarians. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Dec 4 PMC2868292
2. The resiliency to cognitive decline with Exceptional Longevity.
   1. Ismail K, Nussbaum L, Sebastiani P, Andersen S, Perls T, Barzilai N, Milman S. Compression of Morbidity Is Observed Across Cohorts with Exceptional Longevity. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2016 Aug;64(8):1583-91. doi: 10.1111/jgs.14222. Epub 2016 Jul 5. PMID: 27377170 PMC4988893
   2. Perice L, Barzilai N, Verghese J, Weiss EF, Holtzer R, Cohen P, Milman S. Lower circulating insulin-like growth factor-I is associated with better cognition in females with exceptional longevity without compromise to muscle mass and function. Aging (Albany NY). 2016 Oct 14;8(10):2414-2424. doi: 10.18632/aging.101063. PMID: 27744417 PMC5115897c)
   3. N. Barzilai, G. Atzmon, C.A. Derby, and R.B. Lipton, A genotype of exceptional longevity is associated with preservation of cognitive function (2006). Neurology; 67: 2170 PMID: 17190939 PMC3347321
   4. Sanders AE, Wang C, Katz M, Derby CA, Barzilai N, Ozelius L, Lipton RB. Association of a functional polymorphism in the cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) gene with memory decline and incidence of dementia. JAMA. 2010 Jan 13;303(2):150-8.PMID: 20068209, PMC3047443
3. Metabolism and mammalian aging. Muzumdar R, … Barzilai N. Visceral Adipose Tissue Modulates Mammalian Longevity. Aging Cell. 2008 Mar 18. PMCID: PMC2504027.
   1. Cobb LJ, … Barzilai N, Cohen P. Naturally occurring mitochondrial-derived peptides are age-dependent regulators of apoptosis, insulin sensitivity, and inflammatory markers. Aging (Albany NY). 2016 Apr 10. PMCID: PMC4925829.
   2. Heo HJ, Tozour JN, Delahaye F, Zhao Y, Cui L, Barzilai N, Einstein FH. Advanced aging phenotype is revealed by epigenetic modifications in rat liver after in utero malnutrition. Aging Cell. 2016 Jul 29. PMCID: PMC5013021
4. GH/IGF-1 axis and mammalian aging. Muzumdar RH, …, Barzilai NCentral and opposing effects of IGF-I and IGF-Binding Protein-3 on systemic insulin action. Diabetes 2006;55(10):2788-96.
   1. Huffman DM, … Barzilai N. Central insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) restores whole-body insulin action in a model of age-related insulin resistance and IGF-1 decline. Aging Cell. 2015 Nov 4. PMCID: PMC4717281
   2. Milman S,…Barzilai N. Low insulin-like growth factor-1 level predicts survival in humans with exceptional longevity. Aging Cell, 2014 Mar12. PMCID: PMC4116456.
   3. Suh Y, …, Barzilai N, Cohen P. Functionally-significant insulin-like growth factor-I receptor mutations in centenarian. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Mar 4;105(9):3438-42. PMCID: PMC2265137
   4. Ben-Avraham … P, Barzilai N, Atzmon G. The GH receptor exon 3 deletion is a marker of male-specific exceptional longevity associated with increased GH sensitivity and taller stature. Sci Adv. 2017 Jun 16;3(6):e1602025. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1602025. eCollection 2017 Jun. PMID:28630896