NAD Coenzymes, Metabolic Stress, And Novel Preventative And Therapeutic Interventions — Dr. Charles Brenner, Ph.D., City of Hope.
Dr. Charles Brenner Ph.D. is the Alfred E Mann Family Foundation Chair in Diabetes and Cancer Metabolism, and Professor and Chair of the Department of Diabetes & Cancer Metabolism, at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center (https://www.cityofhope.org/faculty/charles-brenner).
With his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Stanford University, Dr. Brenner’s laboratory focuses on disturbances in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), the central catalyst of metabolism, in diseases and conditions of metabolic stress (https://www.cityofhope.org/charles-brenner-lab).
Among his most significant discoveries, Dr. Brenner identified nicotinamide riboside (NR) as a vitamin precursor of NAD, as well as a quantitative metabolomic technology that allowed him to discover that the NAD system is disturbed by many diseases and conditions of metabolic stress, including diabetes and cancer.
Specifically, Dr. Brenner and colleagues have found that in animal models of fatty liver, type 2 diabetes, diabetic and chemotherapeutic neuropathy, central brain injury, heart failure, postpartum and coronavirus infection, the NAD system is disturbed and that in these models, provision of nicotinamide riboside is highly protective.
Dr. Brenner also led the team that conducted the first clinical trial of nicotinamide riboside establishing safe oral availability and has participated in trials establishing safety and potential activities of nicotinamide riboside in clearance of liver fat and depression of common markers of inflammation.
Dr. Brenner continues to research how the NAD system is disregulated as a function of postpartum, coronavirus infection, inflammatory conditions, diabesity and specific malignancies, with the dual goals of defining mechanisms of biological regulation and developing safe preventative and therapeutic interventions for people.
Dr. Brenner’s work over the years been funded by numerous 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, and the National Science Foundation.