Pinchas Cohen

About

Pinchas Cohen, MD, is a Professor of Gerontology, Medicine, and Biological Sciences, and serves as the Dean of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. He holds the William and Sylvia Kugel Dean’s Chair in Gerontology and is the Executive Director of the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center as well as the Director of the Ney Center for Healthspan Science Education. Dr. Cohen earned his MD from the Faculty of Medicine at Technion, Haifa, Israel in 1986 and completed his postdoctoral training at Stanford University from 1986 to 1992. He began his faculty career at the University of Pennsylvania from 1992 to 1999, and until 2012, he was a professor and Vice Chair for Research at the Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA, where he also co-directed the UCSD/UCLA Diabetes Research Center. Dr. Cohen has received numerous prestigious awards for his research, including the National Institute of Aging “EUREKA” Award, the NIH-Director-Transformative RO1 Grant, and the Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging. He holds several patents for novel peptides and is the co-founder of CohBar, a biotechnology company focused on developing mitochondrial peptides for diseases of aging. His research has been published in over 300 papers in leading scientific journals, with a focus on aging, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, growth hormone/IGF biology, and the emerging science of mitochondrial-derived peptides, a field he pioneered.

Research topics

• Genetics
• Biology
• Cell biology
• Internal medicine
• Molecular biology
• Neuroscience
• Endocrinology
• Medicine
• Cancer research

Selected publications

• MOTS-c is an exercise-induced mitochondrial-encoded regulator of age-dependent physical decline and muscle homeostasis.

  Nature Communications · 2021 · 179 citations

  Healthy aging can be promoted by enhanced metabolic fitness and physical capacity. Mitochondria are chief metabolic organelles with strong implications in aging that also coordinate broad physiological functions, in part, using peptides that are encoded within their independent genome. However, mitochondrial-encoded factors that actively regulate aging are unknown. Here, we report that mitochondrial-encoded MOTS-c can significantly enhance physical performance in young (2 mo.), middle-age (12 mo…

  DOI

• Nuclear-Encoded lncRNA MALAT1 Epigenetically Controls Metabolic Reprogramming in HCC Cells through the Mitophagy Pathway

  Molecular Therapy — Nucleic Acids · 2020 · 124 citations

  functions as a critical epigenetic player in the regulation of mitochondrial metabolism of hepatoma cells, laying the foundation for further clarifying the roles of lncRNAs in tumor metabolic reprogramming.

  DOI

• The mitochondrial derived peptide humanin is a regulator of lifespan and healthspan

  Aging · 2020 · 104 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  . Humanin transgenic mice have many phenotypes that overlap with the worm phenotypes and, similar to exogenous humanin treatment, have increased protection against toxic insults. Treating middle-aged mice twice weekly with the potent humanin analogue HNG, humanin improves metabolic healthspan parameters and reduces inflammatory markers. In multiple species, humanin levels generally decline with age, but here we show that levels are surprisingly stable in the naked mole-rat, a model of negligible…

  DOI

• High Omega-3, Low Omega-6 Diet With Fish Oil for Men With Prostate Cancer on Active Surveillance: The CAPFISH-3 Randomized Clinical Trial

  Journal of Clinical Oncology · 2024-12-13 · 25 citations

  articleOpen access

  PURPOSE Men on active surveillance (AS) for prostate cancer are extremely interested in dietary changes or supplements to prevent progression of their disease. We sought to determine whether a high omega-3, low omega-6 fatty acid diet with fish oil capsules (D + FO) decreases proliferation (Ki-67) in prostate biopsies in men with prostate cancer on AS over a 1-year time period. METHODS In this phase II, prospective randomized trial, men (N = 100) with grade group 1 or 2 prostate cancer who elect…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Humanin variant <scp>P3S</scp> is associated with longevity in <i>APOE4</i> carriers and resists <i>APOE4</i>‐induced brain pathology

  Aging Cell · 2024-03-22 · 16 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The APOE4 allele is recognized as a significant genetic risk factor to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and influences longevity. Nonetheless, some APOE4 carriers exhibit resistance to AD even in advanced age. Humanin, a mitochondrial-derived peptide comprising 24 amino acids, has variants linked to cognitive resilience and longevity. Our research uncovered a unique humanin variant, P3S, specifically enriched in centenarians with the APOE4 allele. Through in silico analyses and subsequent experimental v…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01AI040203

  NIH · $1.1M · 2004

• NIH Grant R21DK089447

  NIH · $369k · 2013

• NIH Grant R01AG034430

  NIH · $1.2M · 2014

Frequent coauthors

• Junxiang Wan

  University of Southern California

  113 shared

• William J. Aronson

  University of California, Los Angeles

  102 shared

• Jonathan W. Said

  University of California, Los Angeles

  93 shared

• David Elashoff

  University of California, Los Angeles

  85 shared

• Ron G. Rosenfeld

  Stanford University

  79 shared

• Susanne M. Henning

  74 shared

• David Hwang

  73 shared

• Hemal H. Mehta

  University of Sydney

  71 shared

Labs

• The Cohen LabPI

Education

• MD

  Technion Israel Institute of Technology Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine

  1986

Awards & honors

• National Institute of Aging “EUREKA” Award
• National Institutes of Health Director Transformative RO1 Gr…
• Gerontological Society of America Robert W. Kleemeier Award
• American Federation of Aging Research Irving S. Wright Award…
• Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging

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