David A. Sinclair, Ph.D.

Young researcher’s ALS attack plan is now a no-go — Harvard Gazette Career award among the casualties of "terrifying" cuts affecting lab of David Sinclair, which studies aging and disease.

Career award among casualties of ‘terrifying’ cuts affecting lab of David Sinclair news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

All NIH grants supporting my lab's trainees and medical research have been terminated. I am not alone. We scientists work hard to make the world a better place & we will not go down without a fight 🥊

Just posted our manuscript on "mPhenoAge," the first composite biological age measure for mice 🐭🧵 Proud of Alice and the entire team! 👏
@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social @volofoundation.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/544kzccz

Link to the review: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Xenohormesis: Sensing the Chemical Cues of Other Species Many plant molecules interact with and modulate key regulators of mammalian physiology in ways that are beneficial to health, but why? We propose that heterotrophs (animals and fungi) are able to sens...

We called it the Xenohormesis Hypothesis and it explains why many plant molecules are medicinal. When plants are stressed, they make more polyphenols, which our bodies sense to survive a food shortage
cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(08)00511-4

Xenohormesis - Wikipedia

This possibility is consistent with current theories about plant-animal interactions. Konrad Howitz & I proposed that many antioxidants are signaling molecules, which interact with enzymes that turn on the body's defenses against cellular damage and aging...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenohormesis

Where to get polyphenols? From berries, apples with skin, cherries, plums, pomegranates, spinach, red onions, artichokes, broccoli, asparagus, matcha green tea, black tea, coffee, dark chocolate, turmeric, beans, EVOO and any deeply-colored vegetable

The authors of this new review discuss how polyphenols like curcumin, quercetin, resveratrol, and genistein seems to also target cancer-related miRNAs, thereby slowing cancer progression...

In the 1990s, Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun (in my Department @harvardmed.bsky.social) were interested in how different cell types develop in worms. They discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that regulate genes called miRNAs...

In the 1990's, antioxidants were all the rage. Today, we know so much more, while the food and beverage industry still promotes antioxidants as though they were the most important thing...

Polyphenols aren't just antioxidants. They signal to the body ➡️ defend and heal. New evidence indicates that polyphenols might prevent cancer by modulating small RNAs...a thread 🧵

If you turned 100 today and felt like you do now, would you want to die? Of course not.

So asking “How long do you want to live” is pointless

The right question is “When do you want to get frail and sick.”

Science funding agency threatened with mass layoffs National Science Foundation staff heard the plans at a meeting Tuesday.

Sabotage. Criminal sabotage.

"[The NSF] is planning to lay off between a quarter and a half of its staff in the next two months, a top National Science Foundation official said Tuesday."

www.eenews.net/articles/sci...

Fish oil and vitamin D capsules

Omega-3 plus vitamin D “slows biological aging by 3-4 months over 3 years, particularly when combined with exercise.” 👏
t.co/XGexiZFQg3

NIH eases freeze on grant reviews imposed after Trump communications pause Meetings of study sections and closed portion of councils back on track as agency also deals with diversity-related executive orders

The gears of the grantmaking machinery at NIH have begun moving again, after a 2-week standstill following a controversial ban on communications imposed by President Donald Trump. scim.ag/4aLQ0U6

I couldn’t be prouder of the Sinclair lab family, now over 200 amazing people 🥹

Haim showed that the human SIRT1 gene is activated by CR, which protects cells (Science), Dudley showed all yeast Sirtuins mediate CR (Science) & Joe showed activators improve 🐁 health (Nature)

Roz showed adversity turns on NAD biosynthetic gene to extend lifespan (Nature), Kevin & Jason showed Sirtuins can be activated by molecules (Nature & Science)…

In the first 5 years, Kevin & Roz showed Sirtuins are regulated by B3 and NAD availability (in Science)…

but we didn’t know how epigenetics was related to aging, why the epigenome changed over time, if aging was reversible, how the environment influenced Sirtuin activity, or if any of this was relevant to humans

In those days, we barely knew anything about aging. The Sirtuins had just been linked to yeast aging (in the Guarente lab @mit where I’d moved from)…

* Assoc. Prof. Magda Latorre Esteves (Nanotech, U. of Puerto Rico)
* Prof. Joe Baur (U. Penn, NAD biology & longevity)
* Dr. Siva Lavu (Drug development, entrepreneur, Boston)

*Dr. Kevin Bitterman (VC partner, Editas founding CEO, Atlas VC, Boston)
* Prof. Haim Cohen (Sirtuin 6 expert, entrepreneur, Bar-Ilan University, Israel)
* Prof. Dudley Lamming (mTOR, amino acids in longevity, U. Wisc)

The latest longevity, life extension, and rejuvenation news. The Latest Longevity News Aging and longevity topics Editor’s Picks – The top longevity stories Industry Press Releases

*Dr. Jason Wood, (Transposons, epigenetics, Brown U.)
* Dr. Oliver Medvedik (Founder, Lifespan.io)
* Prof. Roz Anderson, Primate caloric restriction, President American Aging Assoc, U. Wisc)

Exciting times, stressful times

Some more photos of the founding team @harvard.edu

Our lab is 25 years old this week. A big thanks to past and present lab members who’ve work so hard to make the world a better place 🙏 🙏 🙏
Some photos and milestones 🧵

In summary, more clinical trials are needed to know if the beneficial effects in animals will be seen in humans 🙏

In 2024, spermidine at 40 mg/day had minimal effects on circulating spermidine in older men & with no significant changes in lipids or blood biomarkers compared to placebo, though the trial was only 28 days