Jesse Poganik

At a glance

• Researcher in Vadim Gladyshev’s lab in the Division of Genetics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
• First author of a much-discussed Cell Metabolism study (2023): biological age, measured with epigenetic clocks, rises during severe stress — such as surgery, pregnancy or severe COVID — and falls again with recovery.
• That work shows biological age is not a fixed number but can fluctuate; an important insight for anyone using such tests.
• Wrote in Cell Metabolism (2026) about the difference between ageing and biological age, and why claims of ‘rejuvenation’ need careful interpretation.
• Recent work (preprint, 2026) suggests that transplanted hearts take on the biological age of the recipient.
• Relevant because ‘biological age’ has become a popular marketing term; his research helps clarify what such measurements actually say.