Riekelt Houtkooper

At a glance

• Riekelt Houtkooper is a Dutch biochemist and professor at Amsterdam UMC, where he co-leads the Laboratory Genetic Metabolic Diseases.
• He studies how metabolism, and especially mitochondria, the cell’s power plants, influence ageing, using worms, mice and human cells.
• As a postdoc with Johan Auwerx in Lausanne he published in Nature (2013) that an imbalance between mitochondrial and nuclear proteins can be a conserved longevity mechanism.
• His group also showed that common antibiotics such as doxycycline disrupt mitochondrial function in many model systems, which matters for research that uses them.
• He also studies NAD+, a molecule that declines with age, and how diet and drugs can influence the metabolism of ageing.
• For longevity, his work links cellular energy metabolism to healthy ageing.
• Takeaway: mitochondria respond strongly to exercise; regular endurance training is a proven way to support them.