On July 27, 2023, The New York Times featured insights from AFAR Scientific Director Nir Barzilai, MD, on the incredible longevity of centenarian Louise Levy and the role of genetics in slowing or stopping age-related diseases.
“It’s not luck. They exceeded luck. The biggest answer is genetics,” shares Dr. Barzilai on the research behind these “SuperAgers” (individuals who are 95 years or older). “The most striking thing about them is they had a contraction of morbidity… They are sick, as a group, for very little time at the end of their lives.”
An authority in studying genetics and longevity, Dr. Barzilai is the Co-Investigator of the AFAR SuperAgers Family Study, which aims to understand and uncover the biological factors contributing to healthy aging and exceptional longevity shared among individuals ages 95 and older.
Read the full article in The New York Times here.
Learn more about the SuperAgers Family Study here.
A multiple AFAR grantee, Dr. Barzilai is also the director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging Research, and the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging. He is the Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Chair of Aging Research, professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics, and a member of the Diabetes Research Center and of the Divisions of Endocrinology & Diabetes and Geriatrics.
