James F. Nelson is Professor of Cellular and Integrative Physiology and the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at UT Health San Antonio. Through his research, he seeks to understand the genetic and physiological basis of ageing through nutritional and pharmacological interventions. Her early work focused on female reproductive ageing in mice and humans, with findings that continue to be widely cited.  His studies on dietary restriction have identified an important role for hyperadrenocorticism in its anti-ageing effects, as well as striking genetic variations in its ability to prolong life.

For more than two decades, he has participated in the National Institute on Aging’s Intervention Testing Programme, which has identified 12 drugs that increase longevity in genetically heterogeneous mice. Many of these compounds are approved by the FDA for other purposes. Their current work, analysing the huge PTI longevity dataset, has found striking sex differences in the life-extending efficacy of these drugs, and also in the age-specific mortality of untreated mice, which is remarkably parallel to that of humans.  A major goal is to understand the biological basis of these sex differences in ageing and drug efficacy, with the long-term aim of improving the lives of all of us as we age.