Tom Perls

Thomas Perls MD, MPH (born 1960) is the founding director of the New England Centenarian Study.^[1] Born in Palo Alto, California, Perls later moved to Colorado and now lives in Boston. He received his B.A. from Pitzer College in 1982, his M.D. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1986 and his M.P.H. from Harvard University in 1993.^[2] He is a Principal Investigator of the National Institute on Aging funded Long Life Family Study.^[3] Perls is Professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and attending physician in geriatrics at Boston Medical Center. He is author of over 110 peer reviewed articles primarily in the areas of biodemography and genetics of human exceptional longevity.

Perls is the author of the online "Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator".^[4] Perls is a prominent critic of "hormone replacement therapy" including growth hormone and testosterone for "anti-aging" and "age-management".^[5] He is author of the website hghwatch.com.^[6] and he has testified before the U.S. Congress,^[7] as well as provided written testimony for the U.S. Sentencing Commission regarding illegal distribution of growth hormone for anti-aging.^[8] Perls is the author of several academic articles about the medical misuse and illegal distribution of growth hormone and anabolic steroids, including testosterone, for anti-aging and bodybuilding.^[9][10][11]

A controversial paper regarding the genetics of aging with which Perls was associated was retracted from the journal Science in 2011 due to flawed data.^[12][13]= The corrected version of the paper was then published in the online journal PlosOne ^[14] and several of the reported associations were replicated in additional studies of centenarians.^{[15][16][17][18]}

References

1. "The new England Centenarian Study". Boston University. 2002. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
2. Anderson, Porter (27 August 2001). "Thomas Perls: Longevity researcher". Cable News Network. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
3. "The Long Life Family Study". Washington University St Louis. 2006. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
4. Perls, Thomas. "Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator". Thomas Perls. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
5. "Anti-Aging Quackery: Human Growth Hormone and Tricks of the Trade—More Dangerous Than Ever" (PDF). Oxford Press. 2004. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
6. Perls, Tom (2006). "hghwatch". Retrieved 1 July 2013.
7. "Committee holds hearing on myths and facts about human growth hormone, B12, and other substances". U.S. House of Representatives. 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
8. "Sentencing of human growth hormone offenses" (PDF). Thomas Perls. 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
9. "Provision or Distribution of Growth Hormone for "Antiaging". Clinical and Legal Issues". JAMA. 2005. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
10. "New Developments in the Illegal Provision of Growth Hormone for "Anti-Aging" and Bodybuilding". JAMA. 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
11. "Growth hormone and anabolic steroids:athletes are the tip of the iceberg=2009". Wiley Interscience. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
12. "Scientists Retract Report on Predicting Longevity". The New York Times. 22 July 2011.
13. "Big "Oops" Forces Retraction of Longevity Study". CBS News. 21 July 2011.
14. "Genetic Signatures of Exceptional Longevity in Humans". Plos One. 2012-01-18. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
15. "Meta-analysis of genetic variants associated with human exceptional longevity". Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. 2013-08-24. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
16. "Human longevity and common variations in the LMNA gene: a meta-analysis - Conneely - 2012 - Aging Cell - Wiley Online Library". Onlinelibrary.wiley.com. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
17. "Genetic Variants in PVRL2-TOMM40-APOE Region Are Associated with Human Longevity in a Han Chinese Population". Plos One. 2014-06-12. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
18. "The rs1333049 polymorphism on locus 9p21.3 and extreme longevity in Spanish and Japanese cohorts - Springer". Link.springer.com. 2013-10-28. Retrieved 2014-07-28.