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)
Professor of Pharmacology · Co-Director, Nathan Shock Center of Excellence · Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, UT Health San Antonio
Faculty profile, Barshop Institute (San Antonio, Texas, USA) ↗ ORCID0000-0001-6643-3288 ↗
Portrait: UT Health San Antonio Faculty Directory
Randy Strong directs the San Antonio site of the National Institute on Aging's Interventions Testing Program (ITP), a multi-site effort that tests candidate longevity drugs in genetically heterogeneous mice under a strict, pre-registered protocol so that results replicate across independent laboratories.
In 2009, Strong's site co-led the landmark finding, published in Nature, that rapamycin extends mouse lifespan even when treatment starts late in life, which the authors described as the first pharmacological extension of lifespan in both sexes of a mammal. His group has since tested numerous other compounds through the ITP and, in 2026, is contributing scientific input to a large clinical trial of rapamycin in healthy older adults at UT Health San Antonio.
The timeline below follows Strong's contributions gathered in this Atlas.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | A | Rapamycin fed late in life extends lifespan in genetically heterogeneous mice HAR2009 Rapamycin fed from 600 days of age extended median and maximal lifespan in both sexes; age at 90% mortality rose 14% in females and 9% in males. |
| 2010 | A | Molecular interplay between mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), amyloid-beta, and Tau: effects on cognitive impairments. CAC2010 Revealed a vicious cycle: amyloid-beta RAISES mTOR activity, and high mTOR in turn blocks the autophagy needed to clear amyloid and tau - so the disease feeds itself. Rapamycin broke the loop in 3xTg-AD mice, rescuing memory and lowering BOTH amyloid and tau, with autophagy induction shown to be necessary for the reduction in amyloid levels. |
| 2010 | A | Inhibition of mTOR by rapamycin abolishes cognitive deficits and reduces amyloid-beta levels in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease SPI2010 Connected the longevity drug to a specific age-related disease. Long-term rapamycin prevented memory deficits and lowered toxic amyloid-beta in an Alzheimer's mouse model - and the benefit tracked with INCREASED autophagy in neurons. Suggested that the same autophagy boost that may slow aging could also help clear disease-causing proteins. |
| 2011 | A | Rapamycin, but not resveratrol or simvastatin, extends life span of genetically heterogeneous mice MIL2011 In the same experimental design that showed rapamycin extended median lifespan by 10-18%, neither resveratrol nor simvastatin had any significant effect on survival - a direct head-to-head negative control run at the same time, in the same mice. |
| 2012 | A | Lifelong rapamycin administration ameliorates age-dependent cognitive deficits by reducing IL-1β and enhancing NMDA signaling MAJ2012 Co-author: rapamycin started at 2 months of age, but not at 15 months, prevented age-related memory loss in mice, with lower IL-1beta and higher NMDA receptor signalling in the brain. |
| 2012 | A | Evaluation of resveratrol, green tea extract, curcumin, oxaloacetic acid, and medium-chain triglyceride oil on life span of genetically heterogeneous mice STR2012 Reports that none of the tested candidate compounds, including resveratrol, green tea extract and curcumin, significantly extended mouse lifespan in the Interventions Testing Program. |
| 2012 | A | Chronic inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin by rapamycin modulates cognitive and non-cognitive components of behavior throughout lifespan in mice. HAL2012 Asked whether the lifespan-extending dose of rapamycin harms or helps the aging BRAIN. Reassuringly, it enhanced learning and memory in young mice, prevented age-related cognitive decline in old ones, and even reduced anxiety and depression-like behavior - linked to boosted brain monoamines. Cognitive benefit, not cost. |
| 2012 | A | Rapamycin slows aging in mice WIL2012 Confirms rapamycin slows measures of aging in mice, extending earlier ITP lifespan findings. |
| 2013 | A | Late-life rapamycin treatment reverses age-related heart dysfunction FLY2013 Striking evidence that in mice mTOR inhibition doesn't just SLOW aging - it can partly reverse an established age-related phenotype. Giving rapamycin to already-old (24-month) female mice for 3 months improved aged heart function, reversing or attenuating age-related cardiac changes, with RNA-seq changes suggesting anti-hypertrophic and anti-inflammatory effects. Started late, still worked. |
| 2014 | A | Acarbose, 17-α-estradiol, and nordihydroguaiaretic acid extend mouse lifespan preferentially in males. HAR2014 Beyond rapamycin, the same ITP program found acarbose extended male median lifespan by 22% - evidence that the registry surfaces real positive hits too, not only negative results. |
| 2014 | A | Rapamycin-mediated lifespan increase in mice is dose and sex dependent and metabolically distinct from dietary restriction MIL2014 Shows rapamycin's lifespan benefit in mice is dose- and sex-dependent and metabolically distinct from dietary restriction. |
| 2022 | A | Lifespan benefits for the combination of rapamycin plus acarbose and for captopril in genetically heterogeneous mice STR2022 NIA Interventions Testing Program C2017 cohort. In MALE mice, rapamycin plus acarbose started at 9 months produced a longer lifespan than either of the two prior ITP cohorts treated with rapamycin alone, suggesting the combination is more potent than its components used separately. In FEMALES the combination was neither better nor worse than rapamycin alone, which the authors relate to the limited survival benefit acarbose alone had shown in earlier female cohorts. Captopril gave a small but significant lifespan increase in females (4-5%). CAVEAT (important for how this is cited): the rapamycin-only comparison is HISTORICAL, against prior cohorts, not a concurrent rapamycin-only arm in the same experiment, so 'more potent than either component' is the authors' suggestion rather than a within-experiment randomised comparison. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 29
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Randy Strong.
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- David E. Harrison 7 shared studies 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
- Richard A. Miller 7 shared studies 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
- Clinton Astle 5 shared studies Long-time research associate of David Harrison at The Jackson Laboratory, with work on mouse blood stem cells and aging since the 1970s, and a co-author of the Interventions Testing Program papers that showed rapamycin extends mouse lifespan
- Nancy L. Nadon 5 shared studies Scientist and programme official at the US National Institute on Aging who oversaw research resources for aging biology and helped run the Interventions Testing Program that found rapamycin extends mouse lifespan
- Arlan Richardson 4 shared studies Studies how rapamycin slows ageing in mice, including the broad changes it causes in the liver, and co-authored early studies showing that rapamycin protects memory in Alzheimer's-model mice
- Kevin Flurkey 4 shared studies Biologist of aging at The Jackson Laboratory who has studied mouse lifespan and hormones since the early 1980s and co-authored the Interventions Testing Program papers on rapamycin
- Zelton Dave Sharp 3 shared studies Molecular biologist at UT Health San Antonio who works on rapamycin and aging in mice, from the Interventions Testing Program lifespan studies to cancer prevention in tumour-prone mice
- Adam B. Salmon 2 shared studies 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
- Natalia Podlutskaya 2 shared studies Contributed, at the Barshop Institute in San Antonio, to mouse studies showing that rapamycin prevents Alzheimer's-like memory loss and improves cognition in normal ageing
- Salvatore Oddo 2 shared studies Alzheimer's disease researcher who showed that amyloid-beta raises mTOR activity and that lowering mTOR with rapamycin cuts amyloid and Tau pathology in mice through autophagy
- Veronica Galvan 2 shared studies Led mouse studies showing that rapamycin prevents Alzheimer's-like memory loss and amyloid build-up, and improves learning in normally ageing mice
- Antonella Caccamo Neuroscientist who, with Salvatore Oddo, showed in Alzheimer's model mice that amyloid-beta and mTOR feed each other in a loop that rapamycin can break
- Brian K. Kennedy Showed with Matt Kaeberlein that reducing TOR or Sch9 signalling extends yeast lifespan in the same way as dietary restriction, and has since championed mTOR as a target for slowing human ageing
- David A. Sinclair Geneticist of aging at Harvard Medical School, known for work on sirtuins, NAD+ and the idea that aging stems from a loss of epigenetic information, who appears in this Atlas as a co-author on two mouse lifespan studies
- 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
- 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
- James L. Kirkland Founder of the field of senolytics, drugs that clear senescent cells, and a leader of clinical trials of ageing-targeted therapies
- James M. Flynn Aging researcher from Simon Melov's lab at the Buck Institute who showed that a short course of rapamycin late in life can partly reverse heart aging in mice
- Jayanta Debnath Physician-scientist who studies how autophagy - the cell's self-digestion system - keeps epithelial tissue healthy and how tumours hijack it
- John E Wilkinson Pathologist at the University of Michigan who examines animal tissues for aging and cancer studies, and first author of the 2012 paper showing that rapamycin slows many signs of aging in mice
- Jonathan J. Halloran First author of a 2012 mouse study showing that lifelong rapamycin does not cost the brain anything and even protects learning and memory with age; long-time member of Veronica Galvan's aging and Alzheimer's research group in San Antonio
- 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
- Pankaj Kapahi Showed that reducing TOR signalling extends fruit-fly lifespan, and that the translation repressor 4E-BP is needed for dietary restriction to extend it
- Patricia Spilman Neuroscientist who showed, with Veronica Galvan, that long-term rapamycin prevents memory loss in an Alzheimer's mouse model, and who later worked with Dale Bredesen on Alzheimer's drug discovery
- Simon Melov Geroscientist who studies how cells and tissues change with age or drug treatment, including the finding that late-life rapamycin improves heart function in old mice.
- Smita Majumder First author of a mouse study in Salvatore Oddo's group showing that rapamycin started early in life, but not in middle age, protected against age-related memory decline
- Stacy A. Hussong Studies how mTOR damages the brain's blood vessels, and how blocking it restores blood flow, the blood-brain barrier and memory in aging and Alzheimer's models
- 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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