Charles Brenner is a global leader in understanding the functions of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) in human health. Brenner discovered the vitamin activity of nicotinamide riboside (NR) and also developed the technology of quantitative targeted NAD metabolomics, which he used to discover that the NAD system is disturbed by multiple conditions of metabolic stress.
His work led to the development and commercialization of Tru Niagen, the patented and safety tested NR that is the subject of more than 50 clinical trials worldwide. Dr. Brenner's work focuses on conditions such as overweight, fatty liver, heart failure, neurodegeneration and postpartum that disturb the NAD system with an effort to improve the body's ability to repair itself.
He is also a valued critic of nonrigorous work and promotional claims in the longevity ecosystem and is an advocate for researchers to dispassionately test rather than to try to prove their hypotheses. Previously a full professor at Dartmouth and an 11 year head of biochemistry at University of Iowa, he holds the inaugural Alfred E Mann Family Foundation Chair of Diabetes & Cancer Metabolism at City of Hope's Beckman Research Institute in Los Angeles. He is also the chief scientific advisor of ChromaDex and a co-founder of Alphina Therapeutics.
