Nir Barzilai (ISR/USA)

Geneticist and longevity researcher

Dr. Nir Barzilai is a renowned scientist known for years of research into genetics and longevity and discovering several “longevity genes” in humans. He is the director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging Research and of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging. He is the author of Age Later (2019).

Born in Israel, Nir Barzilai served as chief medic and physician in the Israel Defense Forces. He served in a refugee camp during the war in Cambodia (1979—1980) and built a nutritional village in the homeland of the Zulu (1983 – Kwazulu).

His current research interests are in the biology and genetics of aging. His team focuses on the genetic of exceptional longevity, hypothesizing that centenarians have protective genes that allows the delay of aging and protect against age-related diseases. Nir is the Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Chair of Aging Research, professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics, and member of the Diabetes Research Center and of the Divisions of Endocrinology & Diabetes and Geriatrics. He is also the co-scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research and a founder of CohBar Inc., a biotech that develops mitochondrial derived peptides as therapy for aging and its diseases.

Dr. Barzilai has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the 2010 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction in Aging Research and the IPSEN Longevity Prize (2016).