Scientific Advisory Board Page

Scientific Advisory Board

Andrzej Bartke, Ph.D.
Dr. Bartke is a Professor in the Department of Physiology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. He is a renowned researcher who has studied the effects of hormones on growth, aging and reproduction in mammals. He is an exceptionally productive research scientist with over 500 publications in scientific journals and books.
Dr. Bartke is recognized for his primary contributions in understanding much of what is currently known about photoperiod effects on reproduction in seasonal species, the role of the pituitary hormone prolactin in both male and female reproduction, the intricate changes in the liver that are caused by growth hormone, and probable mechanisms for the devastating diabetogenic effects of hypersecretion of growth hormone. He has published extensively on the relationship between longevity extension in mice carrying the hypopituitary dwarf mutation and the role of endocrine regulation of aging by insulin-like signals. Dr. Bartke received his magister degree (the equivalent of a master's degree) in biology (zoology) at Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, in 1962, and his Ph.D. in zoology (genetics) at the University of Kansas in 1965.

Walter Funk, PhD
Dr. Funk is Vice President of Research at Nuvelo where he leads internal gene discovery efforts. Prior to joining Nuvelo, he was a founding scientist at Geron Corporation where he served as a project leader on molecular biology projects focused on telomerase biology, cell immortalization, and senescence. He later led the company's genomics efforts in human stem cell biology. Dr. Funk did post-doctoral work at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in the labs of Woodring Wright and Jerry Shay and received his Ph.D. and B.Sc. (Hon) degrees in biochemistry from the University of British Columbia. He has published more than 30 journal papers and is an assignee on seven U.S. patents.

Gerold Grodsky, Ph.D.
Dr. Grodsky is Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Medicine at UCSF (Emeritus, active). He has served as Research Chairman of the Advisory Board to the Secretary of Health and on the editorial boards of numerous journals. Dr. Grodsky is the founding Advisory Editor of Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics. The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, International Foundation, has given an Annual Gerold Grodsky Award for basic research in diabetes since 1994. Dr. Grodsky’s teaching at UCSF focuses on intermediary metabolism of sugars, fats and proteins. He has published more than 225 articles, predominately dealing with the regulation of insulin synthesis / secretion, glucose desensitization, and the role of reactive oxygen species in diabetes. Dr. Grodsky has been an invited lecturer in over twenty-five countries. Dr. Grodsky received his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley and was a Post-Doctorial Fellow at Cambridge University, England.

David Heber, MD, PhD, FACP, FACN
Dr. Heber is Professor of Medicine and Public Health Director at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition. He is the founding Chief of the Division of Clinical Nutrition in the Department of Medicine and the founding Director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition. He received his PhD. in physiology from UCLA and MD from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Heber is Director at the NIH Center for Dietary Supplement Research in Botanicals (CDSRB). He also served as Director of the NIH Nutrition Training Program and Director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Unit. Dr. Heber is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism by the American Board of Internal Medicine and in Clinical Nutrition by the American Board of Nutrition. Dr. Heber is a Director of the American Board of Nutrition and past chair of the Education Committee of the American Society of Clinical Nutrition.

He has written over 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles and 25 book chapters, and two professional texts: Dietary Fat, Lipids, Hormones and Tumorigenesis and Nutritional Oncology. Dr. Heber's primary areas of interest are in nutrition, botanical dietary supplements and the role of phytochemicals and botanical dietary supplements in the prevention and treatment of common forms of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Arnold Kahn, Ph.D.
Dr. Kahn is Professor of Growth and Development, University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry and a member of the Longevity Consortium, a multi-institutional group focused on the genetics of aging. Dr. Kahn joined the UCSF in 1989 and was Chair of the Department of Growth and Development for the initial five years. In 1996 and again in 2002, Dr. Kahn was visiting professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Prior to UCSF, Dr. Kahn was Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Pediatric Research Institute at St. Louis University. Dr. Kahn was also on faculty at Syracuse University and at the Washington University in St. Louis where he served as Chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the School of Dentistry. Dr. Kahn has served on several editorial boards including the Journal of Gerontology. He has published more than 200 papers, abstracts and book chapters and his current major research interests are in biomarkers of aging, and the genetics of aging and longevity. Dr. Kahn did his undergraduate and master's degrees work at the University of Louisville and took his PhD at Columbia University, New York.

Lester Packer, Ph.D.
Dr. Packer is the world's foremost antioxidant research scientist. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Biochemistry from Yale University and has been the head of the Packer Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, for the past 40 years. In addition to his membership in many professional research societies, Dr. Packer is the President of the International Society for Free Radical Research, and Vice-President of UNESCO's Global Network of Molecular and Cell Biology.
He has published over 700 scientific papers and 70 books on antioxidants and health, and he is the recipient of numerous scientific achievement awards. Dr. Packer also serves on editorial advisory boards for scientific journals related to biochemistry, antioxidant metabolism and nutrition.

Mike West, Ph.D.
Dr. West is the President, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. in Worcester, Massachusetts, a company focused on the medical applications of nuclear transfer (cloning) and embryonic stem cell technologies. From 1990 to 1998 he was the founder, director and Vice President of Geron Corporation in Menlo Park, California, where he initiated and managed programs in telomerase diagnostics, telomerase inhibition, telomerase-mediated therapy, and human embryonic stem cells. Dr. West received a B.S. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1976, his M.S. in Biology from Andrews University in 1982, and his Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in 1989.