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 several Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, including the BIO-Vital Program. He is a leading figure in geroscience and serves as the elected President of the Global Academy of Geroscience. 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 also informed therapeutic development, including CETP- and APOC3-targeted approaches.

He also leads major translational initiatives in aging 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 380 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, 2026 George M. Martin Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award. (AFAR)

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.