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
Professor of Pathology, University of Michigan · Co-Director, Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research, University of Michigan · MD, PhD, Yale
Miller Lab, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) ↗ ORCID0000-0001-9266-9649 ↗
Richard Miller has spent his career developing rigorous methods to test whether interventions actually slow aging in mice, rather than merely treating a single disease. He directs one of the three collaborating sites of the NIA's Interventions Testing Program (ITP), which he helped design specifically to guard against the false positives that had plagued earlier longevity research.
Through the ITP, Miller's group was one of the three ITP sites behind the 2009 discovery that rapamycin extends mouse lifespan even when treatment begins late in life, at 20 months of age — a result that reshaped the aging field's view of mTOR as a druggable target for healthy aging. His lab continues to study the genetics and cell biology of long-lived mouse strains.
The timeline below follows Miller'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. |
| 2011 | A | Rapamycin, but not resveratrol or simvastatin, extends life span of genetically heterogeneous mice MIL2011 Shows rapamycin, but not resveratrol or simvastatin, extends lifespan in genetically heterogeneous mice. |
| 2012 | A | Evaluation of resveratrol, green tea extract, curcumin, oxaloacetic acid, and medium-chain triglyceride oil on life span of genetically heterogeneous mice STR2012 None of five popular longevity compounds had a statistically significant effect on lifespan. The paper explicitly states the ITP's mission is to publish all results, positive or negative - the exact registry model this Atlas should emulate. |
| 2012 | A | Rapamycin slows aging in mice WIL2012 Answered a crucial objection: does rapamycin really slow AGING, or just prevent the cancers that kill mice? By showing slower age-related change across many tissues (heart, liver, tendon, activity), it argued for genuine slowing of aging. Honestly reported harms too - more cataracts and testicular degeneration - making it a balanced landmark, not hype. |
| 2014 | A | Acarbose, 17-α-estradiol, and nordihydroguaiaretic acid extend mouse lifespan preferentially in males. HAR2014 Shows acarbose, 17-alpha-estradiol and NDGA extend mouse lifespan in a sex-preferential manner, broadening the ITP's drug set beyond rapamycin. |
| 2014 | A | Rapamycin-mediated lifespan increase in mice is dose and sex dependent and metabolically distinct from dietary restriction MIL2014 Shows rapamycin's lifespan effect in mice depends on dose and sex and is 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 15
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Richard A. Miller.
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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
- Randy Strong 7 shared studies 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)
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
Every researcher with a profile →
On the programme
Meetings in the Atlas calendar where Richard A. Miller is listed among the speakers or organisers.
- upcoming Gordon Research Conference: Biology of Aging 2027 ↗ 25–30 Jul 2027 ·
Lucca (Barga), Italy · ★★ Add to calendar:
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