Charles Brenner, PhD

Chair of the Department of Diabetes & Cancer Metabolism, at City of Hope

• bio

  Charles Brenner, PhD, is the Alfred E. Mann Chair of the Department of Diabetes & Cancer Metabolism, at City of Hope. He received his BA in biology from Wesleyan University and his PhD from Stanford University in cancer biology, before doing a postdoctoral fellowship in chemistry and biochemistry at Brandeis University. In 2004, while a faculty member at Dartmouth College, Brenner discovered nicotinamide riboside (NR) to be a precursor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). Since then, his research team has carried out extensive preclinical research on NR and its benefits for the liver, nervous system, heart, and brain. Brenner also led the first clinical trial of NR, which established the safety of oral NR in humans. He is currently focusing on the maternal and neonatal effects of oral NR, and is the chief scientific advisor of ChromaDex, Inc.