David Sinclair

Sinclair grew up in Sydney; he says a conversation about mortality with his grandmother at the age of four sparked a lasting interest in aging, and by 18 he had set himself the goal of transforming how aging and health are understood.⁠[1]

He earned a Ph.D. in molecular genetics at the University of New South Wales in 1995, then did postdoctoral work in Leonard Guarente’s lab at MIT, where he co-discovered a cause of aging in yeast; in 1999 he moved to Harvard Medical School.⁠[2]

In 2003 he found that resveratrol, a compound in red wine, seemed to activate the yeast longevity gene SIR2, whose mammalian equivalents are called sirtuins.⁠[3]

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals was founded in 2004 to develop anti-aging small molecules based on research by Sinclair and Guarente, with Sinclair as a founding scientist; it went public in May 2007.⁠[4]

In 2006 his study finding that resveratrol can activate SIRT1 and inhibit the ill effects of excess weight in mice made headlines; later work by his group showed that caloric restriction acts by activating SIRT3 and SIRT4.⁠[5]

In April 2008 GlaxoSmithKline agreed to buy sirtuin specialist Sirtris for $720 million in cash, or $22.50 a share, an 84% premium to the previous day’s price; days earlier Sirtris had released Phase Ib data showing that SRT501, its resveratrol formulation, significantly lowered patients’ blood glucose.⁠[6]

Around 2010 studies by Amgen and Pfizer concluded that resveratrol and several Sirtris candidates did not directly activate SIRT1; Sinclair replied that the purity of Pfizer’s compounds could not be ascertained and that contrary published work was not discussed.⁠[4]

In 2012 his team published a Cell Metabolism study showing that mice with SIRT1 knocked out in adulthood did not gain resveratrol’s improvement in mitochondrial function, answering critics; he called resveratrol “a dirty, dirty molecule.” Matt Kaeberlein of the University of Washington, who had questioned his conclusions, called it a good experiment but said it did not rule out an indirect effect.⁠[7]

On March 8, 2013, he published a Science paper detailing how resveratrol and similar molecules activate sirtuins, answering a 2011 Nature paper that had challenged his results; four days later GSK said it was shutting its Sirtris division. He said, “We know the science is real.”⁠[3]

GSK said it would close Sirtris’s Cambridge headquarters and fold part of its research staff into its Philadelphia R&D operations, adding that it had bought Sirtris for its sirtuin knowledge rather than for resveratrol.⁠[8]

In April 2014 he was named to the TIMETIMETIME is an American newsmagazine and media brand founded by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden, which published its first issue on March 3, 1923; it is headquartered in New York and known for its Person of the Year selection and the TIME100 list. Since 2018 it has been personally owned by Marc and Lynne Benioff; its current Chief Executive Officer is Jessica Sibley, and its Editor-in-Chief is Sam Jacobs.Open the full entry 100 list of the most influential people, the entry highlighting his 2013 study identifying a potentially reversible cause of aging.⁠[5]

In October 2018 he was invested as an Officer of the Order of Australia at the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C., “for distinguished service of a high degree to Australia and humanity at large,” with his wife, Sandra Luikenhuis, attending; he was then chairman of Life Biosciences, which he co-founded with Tristan Edwards in 2017.⁠[9]

In September 2019 Simon & Schuster published his Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To; he was then a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Paul Glenn Center for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging, holding 35 patents.⁠[10]

On June 7, 2021, he appeared on episode 189 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, discussing how to solve aging, why we age, a genetic reset switch that reverses aging, AI in biology, wearables and health data, fasting, diet, exercise, sleep, and immortality and death.⁠[11]

In January 2023, as senior author, he published a 13-year international study reporting that the degradation of epigenetic information can drive aging in mice and that restoring the epigenome reversed signs of aging; he said biological age could be driven “forwards and backwards at will,” while the authors said the results still had to be replicated in larger mammals and humans.⁠[12]

In June 2023 the Academy for Health and Lifespan Research, a non-profit founded in 2019 with about 60 longevity scientists as members, announced his election as president, succeeding Felipe Sierra.⁠[13]

Animal Biosciences, a veterinary supplement company he founded and which is headed by his brother Nick Sinclair, issued a news release quoting him as saying it had developed the first supplement “proven to reverse aging in dogs”; no published research had yet shown that its ingredients reverse or even slow aging in dogs.⁠[14]

The claim drew sharp criticism from other scientists, and the AHLR saw a cascade of resignations, with one departing member calling him a “snake oil salesman” on X.⁠[15]

Sinclair then said the release should have quoted him as saying “proven to reverse the effects of aging in dogs,” and resigned as president of the AHLR; he said, “My lab’s ideas and findings are typically ahead of the curve,” which is why some peers might feel the research is overstated at the time.⁠[16]

As of October 2026 he is a tenured professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-chief editor of the journal Aging, with more than 50 patents.⁠[2]

Personal website: Public link: https://lifespanbook.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[11]

X: Public account: https://x.com/davidasinclair (opens in a new window)⁠[11]

Harvard Medical School: Official website: https://hms.harvard.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[9]