David J. Glass
Muscle biologist and Regeneron vice president for ageing research, member of the US National Academy of Sciences, who helped discover the muscle-wasting enzymes MuRF1 and MAFbx and co-authored the first trials of low-dose mTOR inhibition in older people
Vice President, Aging/Age-Related Disorders, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (since 2019) · Senior Lecturer in Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School · head of the musculoskeletal programme, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research · Regeneron (about 15 years, earlier) · postdoc with Charles Cantor and Stephen Goff, Columbia University · MD, New York Medical College
Portrait: Academy of Geroscience
David Glass is a co-author of two Atlas trials from the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research that asked whether a short course of a low-dose mTOR inhibitor can help the ageing immune system. In MAN2014, older volunteers took everolimus (RAD001), a rapamycin-like drug, for six weeks before a flu shot, and their antibody response to the vaccine rose by about 20 percent; fewer of their T cells carried PD-1, a marker of exhausted immune cells. In MAN2018, a phase 2a trial in 264 older adults, six weeks of a low-dose combination of everolimus and BEZ235 (a drug that blocks PI3K and mTOR at the active site) was linked to fewer reported infections over the following year.
These trials are the main human basis for the idea of weekly low-dose rapalogs as an anti-ageing intervention. Their limits matter: a stronger vaccine response is a lab marker, not proof of fewer infections, and a later phase 3 trial of BEZ235 (RTB101) alone did not confirm a clinical benefit.
Glass trained as a physician, with an MD from New York Medical College, and chose research over further clinical training. Postdoctoral work followed with Charles Cantor and then Stephen Goff at Columbia University. During about 15 years at Regeneron, Glass began studying skeletal muscle and helped identify MuRF1 and MAFbx, two muscle-specific enzymes that tag proteins for destruction when muscle wastes away (MAFbx was found independently by Alfred Goldberg's group, who named it atrogin-1). The lab later showed that myosin heavy chain, the main motor protein of muscle, is a key target of MuRF1, and that the kinase Akt drives muscle growth and links growth and wasting through the FOXO proteins.
At Novartis, Glass led the musculoskeletal research programme, working on myostatin, GDF-11 and activin A and leading development of the antibody bimagrumab. As senior author there, Glass led a 2019 study in aged rats showing that partial inhibition of mTORC1 with a rapalog counteracted the age-related loss of muscle mass. In 2019 Glass returned to Regeneron as Vice President of Aging/Age-Related Disorders and also holds a post as Senior Lecturer in Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. Recent papers cover how common low muscle mass is among people with obesity in the USA, a 2025 trial identifying GDF8 (myostatin) and activin A as the main brakes on muscle mass in postmenopausal women, and, in 2026, why keeping muscle matters during drug-induced weight loss. In April 2024 Glass was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | H | mTOR inhibition improves immune function in the elderly MAN2014 Co-author of the trial in which a short course of everolimus improved the flu-vaccine response of older volunteers by about 20 percent. |
| 2018 | H | TORC1 inhibition enhances immune function and reduces infections in the elderly MAN2018 Co-author of the phase 2a trial in which low-dose BEZ235 plus everolimus was linked to fewer infections in older adults over the following year. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 3
People with a profile here who share at least one study with David J. Glass.
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- Joan B. Mannick 2 shared studies Ran early clinical trials of low-dose mTOR inhibitors in older adults, which improved their response to flu vaccination and, in a phase 2a trial, their rate of self-reported infections; a larger phase 3 trial of RTB101 (2021) did not confirm a reduction in respiratory illness. She led this work first at Novartis and then at resTORbio
- Lloyd B. Klickstein 2 shared studies A physician-scientist who led the clinical studies at Novartis showing that low-dose mTOR inhibitors can boost immune function and cut infections in older adults.
- Dean Quinn Clinical trial investigator at P3 Research in Wellington, New Zealand, who was a co-author of the resTORbio trials that tested low-dose mTOR inhibitors to strengthen immunity in older adults
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