Charles Brenner (biochemist)

Charles Brenner (born October 30, 1961) is the chair of the Department of Diabetes & Cancer Metabolism at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope National Medical Center. He is a major contributor to work on nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide metabolism, who discovered the eukaryotic nicotinamide riboside (NR) kinase pathway.

Education and career

Brenner is a graduate of Wesleyan University and a veteran of biotechnology companies, having worked at Chiron Corporation and DNAX Research Institute, prior to graduate school at Stanford University School of Medicine. Brenner conducted post-doctoral research at Brandeis University with Gregory Petsko and then took his first academic position at Thomas Jefferson University in 1996, moving to Dartmouth Medical School in 2003, where he served as Associate Director for Basic Sciences at Norris Cotton Cancer Center. He served as chair of biochemistry at University of Iowa from 2009 to 2020.

Research contributions

Brenner has made multiple contributions to molecular biology and biochemistry, beginning with purification and characterization of the Kex2 proprotein convertase at Stanford. He has been funded by agencies including the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the March of Dimes, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Beckman Foundation, the Lung Cancer Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Significant research projects include molecular dissection of the function of the FHIT tumor suppressor gene, characterization and inhibition of DNA methylation, and discovery of new steps in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide metabolism.

Notably, the Brenner laboratory discovered that yeast and humans use nicotinamide riboside to make NAD+, for which Brenner was recognized with a William E.M. Lands lectureship at University of Michigan. Dr. Brenner developed targeted, quantitative analysis of the NAD+ metabolome and made fundamental contributions to NAD metabolism including discovery of nicotinic acid riboside-dependent NAD synthesis, elucidating the mechanism of synthesis of nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate, and discovering multiple conditions in which NAD metabolism is dysregulated in disease.

Brenner is also active in translating NR technologies to treat and prevent human conditions that disturb the NAD system including cancer, diabetic and chemotherapeutic peripheral neuropathy,New Vitamin May Relieve a Painful Problem
''Focus'' April 20, 2008 heart failure, central brain injury, inflammation, mitochondrial myopathy and coronavirus infection. Brenner's work included the first human trial of NR, which demonstrated safe oral availability as an NAD+ precursor. Though Brenner was the first to show that NR increases SIR2 activity and can extend yeast lifespan, his work has not emphasized sirtuins or nonspecific anti-aging claims and instead emphasizes how NR repairs metabolic stresses that dysregulate NAD+ and NADPH.

Brenner recently showed that rodent postpartum mothers are under severe metabolic stress to their NAD system and that supplementing such mothers with NR increases maternal weight loss, advances juvenile development and provides long lasting neurodevelopmental advantages into adulthood. He is author of more than 150 publications and was the senior editor of the 2004 book, Oncogenomics: Molecular Approaches to Cancer.

Brenner has questioned many of the key popular claims with respect to lifespan including whether there are conserved longevity genes, whether sirtuin genes are longevity genes, and whether activators of sirtuins have been identified. Many of these critiques took place on twitter and have been summarized by Dr. Brad Stanfield and others. Brenner took the contra point of view in a debate with Aubrey de Grey on whether we are approaching longevity escape velocity staking the position that Dr. de Grey's approaches have little experimental support and that his enumerated list of seven life-limiting changes do not include loss of repair capacity or the components of aging that are developmentally programmed. After writing a favorable review of Steven Austad's book Methuselah's Zoo, he reviewed Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don't Have To by David A. Sinclair, summarizing it as "an influential source of misinformation on longevity, featuring counterfactual claims about longevity genes being conserved between yeast and humans, the existence of supposed activators of these genes, and claimed successful age reversal in mice based on partial reprogramming." He also published a major review on sirtuins entitled "sirtuins are not conserved longevity genes."

Educational contributions

In 2012, Brenner was asked by the President of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to develop pre-medical curriculum recommendations that would be consistent with a revised MCAT examination. These recommendations, which include development of inorganic, organic and biochemistry coursework that is more geared toward the chemistry of bioorganic functional groups, have been further refined in academic journals. Brenner's work in this area was recognized by the 2016 ASBMB Award for Exemplary Contributions to Education.

Industrial collaborations

Brenner is a former member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. He is the founder of NRomics and was a co-founder of ProHeathspan prior to its acquisition by ChromaDex, for which he serves as member of the scientific advisory board and chief scientific advisor.

Monograph

*Charles Brenner and David Duggan (2004) Oncogenomics: Molecular Approaches to Cancer. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.

References

External links

The Brenner Lab
Brenner web page at City of Hope
*http://twitter.com/charlesmbrenner Brenner twitter profile

http://www.llamapodcast.com/charles-brenner/
Interview with Peter Bowes

https://blog.bulletproof.com/charles-brenner/
Interview with Dave Asprey
*https://www.maxlugavere.com/podcast/143-charles-brenner/ Podcast with Max Lugavere
*https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/anti-aging-podcasts/new-anti-aging-supplement/ Interview with Ben Greenfield
*https://www.ihmc.us/stemtalk/episode-81/ Interview on STEM-Talk
*https://player.fm/series/the-natalie-eva-marie-show/what-is-nad-metabolism-dr-charles-brenner Interview with Eva Marie and Jonathan Coyle

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Living people
1961 births
American molecular biologists
Wesleyan University alumni
Stanford University School of Medicine alumni
Brandeis University alumni
University of Iowa faculty