Nir Barzilai

Dr. Nir Barzilai is the founding director of the Institute for Aging Research, the Nathan Shock Center 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 heterogeneity, 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 cofounder of CohBar, Inc., a biotechnology company developing mitochondria based therapeutics to treat diseases associated with aging.

Dr. Barzilai was born in Israel and received his M.D. from TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. He was chief medic in the Israeli 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 instructor of medicine .

Source: Wikipedia