Community Conversations: Charles Brenner, Ph.D.

“There are a lot of things I can do here I’ve never thought about doing anywhere else,” says biochemist Charles Brenner. Chopping onions in the kitchen of his airy Pasadena home, Brenner is referring to his pioneering work in metabolism. For over two decades, Brenner has studied the way the body converts everything we eat into everything we are.

The obsession has taken the native New Englander from posts at Dartmouth and the University of Iowa, to the Bay Area (where “he was a big hippie!” quips his wife, Tamar), and now to City of Hope in Duarte, where he is the Alfred E. Mann Family Foundation Chair in the Department of Diabetes & Cancer Metabolism. Brenner’s reputation is one of an elegant experimentalist and hyper-specific expert.

At City of Hope, Brenner focuses on a coenzyme called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), the central catalyst of metabolism. Or as one of his former students likened it: the ring in The Lord of the Rings, “the one to rule them all,” because NAD sits at the intersection of so many vital metabolic pathways.) Brenner’s star rose in 2004, when he discovered nicotinamide riboside (NR) as an unanticipated vitamin precursor or new booster of NAD. His findings led to the creation of an NR supplement, Tru Niagen.

If, after reading the above paragraph, you find yourself asking, “What?” it’s understandable. So, Pasadena magazine went to discuss it with Brenner at his home, where we caught him prepping salad for the family dinner.

Pasadena Magazine: NAD sounds complicated. Help us out.

Charles Brenner: All the food we eat has NAD in it. People are familiar with electric cars and electric appliances, right?

PM: I hope so.

CB: There are copper wires that go from the power source to the component parts, and those copper wires carry high-energy electrons. High-energy electrons also power living things. The transmitter­­—the wiring, if you will—are called NAD coenzymes. That’s why we focus on NAD. It’s so important as this transmitter of energy that allows us to take in fuel and convert it to repair and maintain ourselves.

PM: How did your 2004 findings with NR affect this?

CB: NR’s termed a vitamin. Generally speaking, vitamins get into cells and make coenzymes, and then coenzymes allow metabolism to happen. It was considered remarkable after a more than 100-year history of people studying NAD that I was able to discover another vitamin precursor.

PM: What did this new vitamin show you?

CB: The NAD system comes under attack in conditions of metabolic stress. For example, sunlight can damage DNA. In the process of repairing DNA, cells use NAD to organize the repair process. So, for our bodies to be resistant to metabolic stress, it can be useful to take a supplement that boosts our NAD.

PM: How effective has NR supplementation proven?

CB: We’ve found conditions in mice and now some in humans, where there’s a benefit. For example, there are animal models of Alzheimer’s and other types of cognitive impairment in which NR was very active. Right now, I can confidently say NR has strong anti-inflammatory activity in people. I’m very excited there are about 75 trials of NR that have been registered at clinicaltrials.gov. It’s through these larger, well-conducted trials that we hope to be able to see medical uses for NR.

PM: What are you working on now?

CB: A colleague in the dermatology department at City of Hope, Dr. Badri Modi, and I are proposing a study to the National Institute on Aging in which we want to look at whether age and sun exposure degrade skin NAD, and whether that relates to the rate at which people heal from skin wounds. We’re also going to test whether NR supplementation accelerates skin repair.

PM: How much of what you do at City of Hope relates to NAD?

CB: We work at City of Hope to try to understand metabolism and disease and figure out how we can do something about it. There are projects we do in the lab where we want to kill tumor cells by taking advantage of something peculiar about their NAD system. Almost everything I do relates to NAD, where you either want to supplement it—to boost resiliency and repair—or you want to take advantage of some sort of Achilles’ heel, so you can kill a tumor.

PM: Work brought you here roughly three years ago. What was your first impression of L.A.?

CB: I had no idea how beautiful Los Angeles County was. I had a vague idea the mountains were bigger than in the Bay Area, which is funny, because people in the Bay are very proud of their 3-or-4,000-ft. mountains in a nine-county area. And we have 10,000-ft. mountains in one county.

PM: What about Pasadena?

CB: It’s lovely. We can walk to a waterfall. We’ve had bears steal our avocados.

PM: I’m sure they’re grateful. Any complaints?

CB: I complain about the bagels, but most people from the East Coast do.