Our Vision is Population Geroscience

We believe insights into the basic biology of aging have transformative potential for public health. We work to bring breakthroughs from aging biology into public health with the goal of increasing healthy lifespan for all. Our research seeks to understand how genes and environments combine to shape health across the life course, with the long term goal to identify opportunities for policy, clinical, and public health intervention to promote positive development in early life and extend health across the lifespan.

Daniel W. Belsky, PhD.

Associate Professor of Epidemiology
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Butler Columbia Aging Center

Education

BA Swarthmore College, Psychology

PhD University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy & Management

Postdoctoral Fellowship Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, with Terrie Moffit and Avshalom Caspi

Introduction

Dan is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Butler Columbia Aging Center, where he directs the Center’s Geroscience Computational Core. He was an Early-Career Fellow of the Jacobs Foundation and is a current Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR). He is a Scientific Advisory Board Member for the Xprize for Healthspan Extension and the Biomarkers of Aging Consortium. Prior to coming to Columbia, Dan was Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Population Health Sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine, where he previously completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, with Terrie Moffit and Avshalom Caspi. Dan earned his BA from Swarthmore College and his PhD from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.


Dan works at the intersection of the social and behavioral sciences, genomics, and public health. His focus for the past several years has been on development and evaluation of methods to quantify the pace and progress of biological process of aging in young, mid-life, and older-adult humans and the application of these methods to study (1) how life-history and social factors contribute to individual differences in healthy aging; and (2) whether and how aging processes can be modified by intervention. With collaborators Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi he originated the Pace of Aging method to quantify the aging process from longitudinal analysis of human physiology and recently translated this method into a DNA-methylation blood test that can be implemented from a single time point of data collection. He is principal investigator of NIH-funded projects to test how caloric restriction may slow or reverse aging-related changes to the genome (CALERIE), to understand long-term impacts of in-utero famine exposure on biological aging (Dutch Hunger Winter Family Study, with Bertie Lumey), and to test the potential of anti-poverty policy intervention to slow biological aging (MyGoals for Healthy Aging, with Peter Muennig).

Dan’s Google Scholar, Twitter, Email, Wikipedia, and CV.

 
Graphic of aging across lifespan
 

Current Projects

  • FAST Initiative

    The FAST (Finding Aging biomarkers by Searching existing Trials) Initiative is motivated by the long-term goal of enabling more people to realize this potential for healthspan extension. To achieve this goal, we aim to move biomedical research away from geriatrics-clinic whack-a-mole, in which we develop treatments for symptomatic diseases one at a time, and toward therapies that maintain health and prevent disease. Preclinical studies are bringing these therapies within reach. But translating them in human trials faces the challenge that, unlike in short-lived laboratory models, determining impacts on human healthspan will require decades of follow-up. To overcome this challenge, biomarkers are needed that are responsive to intervention over timescales of months-to-years and which can provide surrogates for the long-term impacts of novel therapies on healthspan. The immediate objective of FAST-PROSPR is to establish sensitive and specific biomarkers that can be tested to determine whether an intervention is slowing the biology of aging and extending healthspan (AY2AX000158 - ARPA-H PROSPR).

    Learn More

  • Multi-omics Analysis of the CALERIE Randomized Trial.

    CALERIE is the first-ever randomized controlled trial of caloric restriction in healthy, non-obese adults (NCT00427193). We are conducting multi-omics analysis of tissues collected during the original CALERIE trial as well as a 10y post-intervention follow-up study (LEGACY, NCT05651620) We are studying how caloric restriction, which is proven to increase healthy lifespan in many animal models, may affect biological aging in humans, and how these effects may persist over a decade after conclusion of the intervention trial (R01AG061378, 2R01AG061378)

    Learn More

  • Multi-omics Analysis of the Dutch Hunger Winter Birth Cohort.

    Supported by the US National Institute on Aging (R01AG066887), this project is developing whole-genome SNP genotype and blood DNA methylation databases for the Dutch Hunger Winter Families Study, a family-based cohort selected for discordant exposure to in-utero undernutrition caused by the Nazi blockade of food supplies to the Southern Netherlands at the end of World War II. The goals of the project are to evaluate potential genetic confounding of famine effects on aging-related disease and to understand the impacts of in-utero famine on biological aging.

    Learn More

  • Analysis of Life-Course Social Mobility and Biological Aging in Middle and Later Life.

    Life-course social science links early-life social disadvantage with adverse outcomes in aging. A gap in knowledge is how social disadvantage is biologically embedded, leading to social inequalities. A hypothesis is that social disadvantage actually hastens aging. While everyone ages chronologically at the same rate, biological changes with aging may proceed faster for some than others. These changes are thought to be a root cause of disease/disability and an intervention target to extend healthy lifespan. (Russel Sage Foundation BioSS Grant 1810-08987)

    Learn More

  • Development and Validation of Markers of Biological Aging as Surrogate Endpoints For programs and Policies Addressing Social Determinants of Health

    Early-life adversity a major driver of health and social problems across the life-course. Several interventions, including home-visitor programs, show potential to protect young children from lifelong damage arising from early-adversity. These interventions increase parental nurturing and prevent some early-life stress exposures. In the short- to medium-term, they benefit families and children. But longer-term outcomes vary substantially across children. (Jacobs Foundation Young Scholars Award; CIFAR CF-0249-CP22-034)

    Learn More

  • MyGoals for Healthy Aging

    MyGoals for Healthy Aging is a randomized controlled trial testing if a novel anti-poverty program slows biological aging in highly disadvantaged public housing recipients, including by inducing changes in risk factors for Alzheimer's disease/Alzheimer's disease-related dementias. (National Institute on Aging R01AG073402)

    Learn More

  • Testing Effects of Cash Transfers on Biological Aging and Risk for Alzheimer's Disease

    The primary objectives of this project are to assess the effects of a cash transfer program on the prevention of biological aging and dementia risk in younger and older individuals. Additionally, we aim to investigate the association between biological aging and cognitive function in this population. The results of this research could hold substantial implications for public health by revealing the causal and long-term health consequences of socioeconomic interventions on health. Moreover, it will offer fresh perspectives on the levels of biological aging and Alzheimer’s Disease risk within the context of lower- and middle-income countries. (National Institute on Aging R01AG087158)

    Learn More