Dr. Nir Barzilai

Dr. Barzilai is the Director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the principal investigator (NIH) on the Nathan Shock Center of excellence in biology of aging. He is The Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Professor of Aging Research, Professor of Medicine and Molecular Genetics and a member of the Diabetes Research Center, the Divisions of Endocrinology and Geriatrics.

Dr. Barzilai’s interests focus on several basic mechanisms in the biology of aging, including the biological effects of nutrients on extending life and the genetic determinants of life span. Indeed, he has discovered the first longevity gene in humans, and is further characterizing the phenotype and genotype of humans with exceptional longevity through an NIH supported Program Project. He received numerous grants, among them ones from the National Institute of Aging (NIA), American Federation of Aging Research, and the Ellison Medical Foundation.  Dr. Barzilai has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, reviews and chapters in textbooks. He is an advisor to the National Institutes of Health on several projects and initiatives and study sections (currently on NIA-Biology). He serves on several editorial boards and is a reviewer for numerous other journals.

Dr. Barzilai was a recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Beeson Fellow for Aging Research, the Senior Ellison Foundation award, the Paul Glenn Foundation award and the NIA- Nathan Shock Award for his contributions in elucidating metabolic and genetic mechanisms of aging, and the recipient of the 2010 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction in Aging Research Award. In his capacity as the Director of the Institute for Aging research at Einstein he leads or assist in 5 large programmatic (P01) approaches to biology of aging, a training grant (T32) and has a merit award for his own research individual grants (R01).

Dr. Barzilai is Israeli born and have served as a medic and a physician in the IDF. He has served in an Israeli team to aid Cambodian refugees, and was in charge of building a nutritional village in the homeland of the Zulus in South Africa. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion, and completed his residency in Internal medicine at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Dr. Barzilai is involved in the American Jewish community, and was a board member of Kol Ami Temple in White Plains, on the Ethic Panel of the Jewish Reform movement and has been on the ‘Forward 50, top 50 influence Jews in the US (2011)