Suzette Tardif
Primate biologist who spent more than 30 years developing the common marmoset as a research model, and who led the first studies of rapamycin dosing and safety in this small monkey
Scientist and Associate Director of Primate Research, Texas Biomedical Research Institute · Associate Director of Research, Southwest National Primate Research Center · Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, UT Health San Antonio (PubMed affiliation 2014–2016)
Portrait: Texas Biomedical Research Institute
Suzette Tardif was first author of the 2014 Atlas study (TAR2014) that first described how to give rapamycin to the common marmoset. The drug was put in a protective coating and fed by mouth at about 1 mg per kg each day. Blood levels were similar to those in mouse aging studies and within the range used in human medicine. In treated animals, the marker of mTORC1 activity, the growth-control complex, fell in blood cells, liver and fat. The monkeys showed no anemia, lung scarring or mouth ulcers, side effects known from patients on the drug.
Tardif was senior author of the 2015 follow-up (ROS2015), which found only minor metabolic effects of long-term treatment, and a co-author of the 2016 study on proteasome and autophagy changes in the same animals (LEL2016). Together these papers made the marmoset a usable model for testing anti-aging drugs in a primate, though none of them measured lifespan.
Tardif's research covers metabolism, behaviour and reproduction in marmosets, and more recently their use as a model of obesity and aging. A 2025 study with Corinna Ross on predicting obesity and blood-sugar problems in adult marmosets lists Tardif at the Southwest National Primate Research Center of Texas Biomedical Research Institute, where Tardif has served as Associate Director of Research.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | A | Testing efficacy of administration of the antiaging drug rapamycin in a nonhuman primate, the common marmoset. TAR2014 First author: first described oral rapamycin dosing, blood levels and mTORC1 inhibition in common marmosets. |
| 2015 | A | Metabolic consequences of long-term rapamycin exposure on common marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus). ROS2015 Senior author: led the study showing only minor metabolic effects of long-term rapamycin in marmosets. |
| 2016 | A | Pharmaceutical inhibition of mTOR in the common marmoset: effect of rapamycin on regulators of proteostasis in a non-human primate. LEL2016 Co-author: provided the marmoset cohort for the study of proteasome and autophagy markers under rapamycin. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 4
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Suzette Tardif.
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- Adam B. Salmon 3 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
- Corinna Ross 3 shared studies Primate biologist at Texas Biomedical Research Institute who uses the common marmoset to test whether drugs such as rapamycin can protect health during aging
- Elizabeth Fernandez 2 shared studies 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
- Matthew Lelegren First author of a 2016 study of how rapamycin changes the protein-quality-control machinery in marmoset liver, muscle and fat, carried out in Adam Salmon's group in San Antonio
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