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
Translational Gerontology Branch, National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program, NIH, Baltimore (papers to 2026)
Portrait: NIH Intramural Research Program
Rafael de Cabo is a co-author of the 2017 Nature Communications paper (MAT2017) that put side by side the two longest studies of calorie restriction in primates: one run by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and one at the University of Wisconsin. Calorie restriction, eating 10 to 40% less while still getting all nutrients, lengthens life in many animals, and part of its effect is thought to run through lower mTOR activity. The two monkey studies had seemed to disagree on survival. Comparing them directly, the authors found clear health benefits in both, while the effect on survival depended on study design and on what the control monkeys were fed. This is evidence from rhesus monkeys, the closest animal model to humans for this question.
De Cabo was also the senior author of the 2012 Nature paper, with Julie Mattison as first author, that first reported that calorie restriction in the NIA monkeys had not improved survival, in contrast to the Wisconsin study. That apparent clash is what the 2017 comparison resolved. PubMed lists more than 400 papers under the name, many on how diet, fasting and candidate drugs affect health and lifespan in mice.
De Cabo works in the Translational Gerontology Branch of the NIA Intramural Research Program in Baltimore, and recent 2026 papers with collaborators in Madrid and at the NIA cover aging of the blood system and of human skeletal muscle.
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 Co-author of the comparison of the NIA and Wisconsin rhesus monkey studies, which showed consistent health benefits of calorie restriction and survival effects that depended on study design. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 3
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Rafael de Cabo.
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- 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
- 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
- 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
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