Julie A. Mattison
Primate aging researcher at the US National Institute on Aging who led the NIA study of calorie restriction in rhesus monkeys and its comparison with the Wisconsin study
Translational Gerontology Branch, National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program, NIH (papers to 2026) · Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, NIA, NIH Animal Center, Dickerson, Maryland (2012)
Julie Mattison was first author of the 2017 Nature Communications paper (MAT2017) that compared the two long-term studies of calorie restriction in rhesus monkeys, one at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and one at the University of Wisconsin. Eating less without malnutrition extends life in many animals, and lower mTOR activity is one of the routes thought to explain it. The two monkey studies had reached different conclusions about survival. Looking at both data sets together, the authors found consistent health benefits, while the survival effect depended on study design and on the diet of the control animals. This is evidence from monkeys, not from people.
Mattison was also first author of the 2012 Nature paper reporting that calorie restriction had not improved survival in the NIA monkeys, at that time listed at the Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology at the NIH Animal Center in Dickerson, Maryland, with Rafael de Cabo as senior author. That result, at odds with the Wisconsin study, set up the 2017 comparison.
In the Atlas, Mattison is also a co-author of a 2021 study (HOR2021) that built epigenetic clocks for the common marmoset, a small monkey, and found that rapamycin did not significantly change epigenetic age in these animals. PubMed lists Mattison at the NIA Translational Gerontology Branch on more recent papers, including a 2026 preprint on muscle aging that used cells from old and young rhesus monkeys.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | A | Caloric restriction improves health and survival of rhesus monkeys MAT2017 First author: led the direct comparison of the NIA and Wisconsin rhesus monkey calorie restriction studies. |
| 2021 | A | DNA methylation age analysis of rapamycin in common marmosets. HOR2021 Co-author of the marmoset study that built epigenetic clocks and found no significant effect of rapamycin on epigenetic age. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 5
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Julie A. Mattison.
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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 B. Allison Biostatistician and obesity researcher, long at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and later dean of public health at Indiana University, known for work on nutrition, obesity and research rigour
- Rafael de Cabo Aging researcher at the US National Institute on Aging who has studied calorie restriction, fasting and drugs that mimic them in mice and rhesus monkeys, including the long-running NIA monkey study
- Rozalyn M. Anderson Professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies the basic biology of aging and how calorie restriction slows it, and senior author of the 2017 comparison of the two long-running rhesus monkey calorie restriction studies
- Steve Horvath Biostatistician and geneticist who built the first pan-tissue epigenetic clock, a DNA methylation test that estimates biological age, and co-developed the network method WGCNA
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