James F. Nelson
Physiologist of aging at UT Health San Antonio who studies how calorie restriction, sex hormones and drugs change mouse lifespan, and a co-investigator on the Interventions Testing Program
Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology and Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, UT Health San Antonio (papers 2003–2026)
Portrait: UT Health San Antonio
James Nelson is a co-author of the Atlas study STR2022 from the National Institute on Aging Interventions Testing Program (ITP). The ITP tests possible anti-aging drugs in genetically mixed mice at three sites at the same time, so a result has to hold up in different labs. In this cohort, male mice given rapamycin together with acarbose, a drug that slows sugar uptake from the gut, starting at 9 months of age lived longer than males on rapamycin alone in earlier ITP cohorts. In females the combination was neither better nor worse than rapamycin alone. The drug captopril also gave a small lifespan gain. All of this is in mice.
Nelson's own research at the Barshop Institute asks why some interventions slow aging and why the sexes differ. Nelson's group found that how well a mouse keeps its body fat predicts whether dietary restriction will lengthen its life (2011), that the higher stress-hormone levels of calorie-restricted mice help explain their lower inflammation (2019), and that castration before puberty removed the lifespan difference between male and female mice (2023).
As part of the San Antonio ITP team, Nelson is a co-author on many of the program's reports, including the 2016 study in which acarbose, an antioxidant and other compounds lengthened male lifespan, the 2021 report that 17-alpha-estradiol given late in life helped male mice, and a 2026 report of eight compounds that did not extend lifespan.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | A | Lifespan benefits for the combination of rapamycin plus acarbose and for captopril in genetically heterogeneous mice STR2022 Co-author from the San Antonio ITP site: rapamycin plus acarbose from 9 months gave male mice a longer lifespan than rapamycin alone in earlier cohorts. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 8
People with a profile here who share at least one study with James F. Nelson.
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- Adam B. Salmon Biologist of aging at UT Health San Antonio whose work in this Atlas spans rapamycin in mice and in common marmosets. He is a co-author on the Interventions Testing Program reports from the San Antonio site and on the marmoset rapamycin studies on blood markers, epigenetic age and the salivary gland
- David E. Harrison Led the Jackson Laboratory site of the NIA Interventions Testing Program. His 2009 Nature paper showed that rapamycin extends the lifespan of genetically diverse mice even when feeding starts at 20 months of age, which the authors described as the first pharmacological extension of lifespan in both sexes of a mammal
- Elizabeth Fernandez Aging researcher at the Barshop Institute in San Antonio who has worked on rapamycin studies in mice and common marmosets, including the NIA Interventions Testing Program
- Martin A. Javors Pharmacologist and professor at UT Health San Antonio who directs an analytical laboratory for biochemical and drug measurements, and a co-author of rapamycin studies in mice and in older people
- Matt Kaeberlein Extended TOR/aging research from yeast to mice to pet dogs
- Randy Strong Leads the San Antonio site of the NIA Interventions Testing Program, which tests each compound in parallel at three sites under one shared protocol. He first-authored the program's reports on resveratrol and other supplements (2012) and on rapamycin combined with acarbose (2022)
- Richard A. Miller Leads the University of Michigan site of the NIA Interventions Testing Program. His papers showed that rapamycin extends mouse lifespan when started in middle age, and that the size of the benefit depends on dose and differs between males and females
- Vivian Diaz Aging researcher at the Barshop Institute in San Antonio who has worked for more than a decade on the mouse lifespan studies behind rapamycin's reputation as an anti-aging drug, including the Interventions Testing Program
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