Andrzej Bartke
Endocrinologist who showed that Ames dwarf mice, which lack growth hormone because of a single-gene mutation, live much longer than normal mice
Professor Emeritus & Director of Geriatrics Research, Departments of Internal Medicine and Physiology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (since 1984) · Faculty, Southern Illinois University Carbondale · Faculty, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio · Fellow in Reproductive Physiology, Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology · Faculty, Jagiellonian University, Kraków · PhD, Zoology, University of Kansas (1965) · MSc, Biology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków (1962) · Methuselah Mouse Prize (2003) · Endocrine Society Lifetime Achievement Award (2015)
Bartke Laboratory, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (Springfield, Illinois, USA) ↗
Portrait: Academy of Geroscience
Bartke is the senior author of the 1996 Nature letter on Ames dwarf mice. He had been studying that mutant strain for years as a reproductive endocrinologist, because a pituitary that cannot make growth hormone also cannot make prolactin, and his colony and his hormone measurements are what made a clean lifespan comparison possible. The letter is short, but it was the first demonstration that one gene mutation can extend life in a mammal.
He then pushed the same logic from the top of the pathway to its receiver. His group helped characterise growth-hormone-receptor knockout mice, which make growth hormone but cannot hear it; one of those animals, GHR-KO 11C, lived 1,819 days and won the first Methuselah Mouse Prize in 2003. Taken together, the two models say the signal itself is the variable: less growth-hormone signalling means less IGF-1, lower insulin, and reduced traffic down the PI3K-AKT-mTOR route that tells cells to grow.
Bartke has spent more than four decades on the genetic and hormonal control of ageing, with over 750 papers, and has kept asking the harder follow-up questions - how diet interacts with growth-hormone signalling, why these mice are unusually insulin-sensitive, and whether the same levers can be pulled pharmacologically in animals that are already old.
Milestones in the Atlas
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | A | Dwarf mice and the ageing process BRO1996 Senior author who supplied the Ames dwarf mouse colony and the endocrine framework behind the lifespan comparison. |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Andrzej Bartke.
- Holly M. Brown-Borg Physiologist who measures how reduced growth-hormone signalling changes lifespan and what keeps long-lived mutant mice healthy
Every researcher with a profile →
On the programme
Meetings in the Atlas calendar where Andrzej Bartke is listed among the speakers or organisers.
- past AGE 54th Annual Meeting 2026 (American Aging Association) ↗ 2–5 Jun 2026 · Provo, Utah, USA · ★★