Famed aging expert, Dr. Eric Verdin, to speak in Sonoma

The Sonoma Speaker Series will feature Dr. Eric Verdin, President and CEO of the Buck Institute in Marin, and an internationally renowned authority on aging, on Monday, June 12, at Hanna Center in Sonoma.

Dr. Verdin has conducted extensive research on aging and the lifestyle components for living longer. His lab explores the pathways that control aging, prominently including the impacts of exercise, nutrition, molecules that mimic exercise or calorie restriction, and rejuvenation. 

He has published more than 210 scientific papers on aging, metabolism, gene regulation, neurodegeneration and other areas of aging research.

Born in Belgium, Dr. Verdin has a BS in Medical Sciences and a doctorate of medicine from the University of Liege, with post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School. In 1997, he joined the Gladstone Institute for Virology and Immunology, where he worked for 20 years, ending his time there as associate director and senior investigator in the virology and immunology unit.

Dr. Verdin is also a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and previously held faculty positions at the National Institutes of Health and at Picower Institute for Medical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 2016, Dr. Verdin became president and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. He has said his research supports the premise that the more carbohydrates people eat, the more they accelerate aging, and that there is increasing evidence that an overabundance of carbohydrates in the human diet is a leading “culprit” in aging.

Dr. Verdin has also explored and reported on the health benefits of the popular Ketogenic diet, reporting there is increasing evidence supporting the health benefits of intermittent fasting, and he quotes the words of famed fitness guru and bodybuilder Jack LaLanne who said, “Exercise is king, nutrition is queen, put them together and you have a kingdom.” Exercise and nutrition, Dr. Verdin says, “are at the cornerstone of what we are trying to do today.”

At the Buck Institute, Dr. Verdin’s lab research includes the relationship between aging and the immune system, and how aging is associated with defects in the adaptive immune system and with chronic inflammation.

For his aging research, Dr. Verdin has been recognized with the Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging and a senior scholarship from the Ellison Medical Foundation. His work on HIV was recognized by an Avant-Garde Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Verdin has served as reviewer on study sections for the NIH, as the organizer of international meetings and as the editor of several books and reviews. 

The conversation with Dr. Verdin begins at 7pm, June 12, in the Hanna Center Auditorium, 1700 Arnold Drive, in Sonoma. A VIP reception will precede the event at 5:45 p.m. Tickets are available from the Sonoma Speaker Series website, sonomaspeakerseries.com.