Dr. Nir Barzilai is the founding director of the Institute for Aging Research, the Nathan ShockCenter of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging and the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. He also directs the Longevity Genes Project, a genetics study of over 600 families of centenarians and their children. The participants are all Ashkenazi Jews, a group selected for their genetic homogeneity, which makes it easier to identify significant genetic variations. Dr. Barzilai found that many of the centenarians had very high levels of HDL, or the “good cholesterol." Dr. Barzilai is also co-founder of CohBar, Inc., a biotechnology company developing mitochondria based therapeutics to treat diseases associated with aging. Dr. Barzilai discovered several “longevity genes” in humans that were validated by others. These include variants in genes involved in cholesterol metabolism, metabolism and growth. These genes appear to protect centenarians against major age-related diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and dementia. Treatments for age-related diseases are being developed based on Dr. Barzilai’s work and are currently in clinical trials with Anacetrapib. The diabetes research is led by CohBar Inc., a biotech company that Dr. Barzilai helped co-found. In addition to his “longevity gene” research, Dr. Barzilai studies key mechanisms involved in the biology of aging, including how nutrients and genetics influence lifespan. He has also proposed metformin as a tool to target aging and has run the Metformin in Longevity Study He is also investigating how mental decline and personality affect longevity. Dr. Barzilai was born in Israel and received his M.D. from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. He was the chief medic in the army from 1977 to 1985. He first came to the U.S. in 1987 as a resident at Yale University. He joined Einstein in 1993 as an instructor of medicine.
