Engy › Who's who in longevity › Pinchas Cohen
At a glance
- American gerontologist and professor of gerontology, medicine and biological sciences at the University of Southern California, where he leads the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.
- His lab studies small proteins encoded in mitochondrial DNA. In 2015 it described MOTS-c in Cell Metabolism, a peptide that affects metabolism and was later linked to exercise and muscle function.
- Investigates how variants in mitochondrial DNA relate to diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer, and how lifestyle — such as a Mediterranean diet — affects blood levels of these microproteins.
- Earlier worked on growth hormone and IGF-1, two signalling pathways central to ageing research.
- Recent studies link mitochondrial DNA variants to sex differences in inflammation and to type 2 diabetes, including through the microprotein MENTSH described in 2026.
- Relevant because MOTS-c and humanin are now sold online as ‘longevity peptides’; his publications show what has actually been studied, mostly in animals and early human studies.
Recent
- Study MENTSH: A novel mitochondrial microprotein linked to a SNP associated with type 2 diabetes
- Study Nuclear mitochondrial interaction test reveals sex-dependent mitochondrial SNP-Klotho interactions on diabetes risk
- Study An immune-associated mitochondrial DNA variant with sex differences reveals a putative novel microprotein called MASL
- Study Mediterranean diet adherence is associated with mitochondrial microproteins Humanin and SHMOOSE; potential role of the Humanin-Nox2 interaction in cardioprotection
- Study Mitochondrial DNA Copy-Number Assessment Is a Potent Predictor for Prostate Cancer in White but Not Black Individuals