Bruce Ames

  • Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of California, Berkeley
  • Senior Scientist at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute

Credentials

  • Ph.D. in Biochemistry
  • Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Education

  • Bachelor's degree – Cornell University (1950)
  • Ph.D. in Biochemistry – California Institute of Technology (1953)

Affiliations

  • University of California, Berkeley
  • Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute
  • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Research Focus

  • Relationship between diet and cancer
  • Role of mitochondrial decay in aging
  • DNA repair

Notable Publications

  • Dietary carcinogens and anticarcinogens. Oxygen radicals and degenerative diseases (1983)
  • Micronutrients prevent cancer and delay aging (1998)
  • The causes and prevention of cancer: gaining perspective (1996)

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Awards & Honors

  • National Medal of Science (1998)
  • Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal (2004)
  • Japan Prize (2011)

Key Contributions

  • Developed the Ames test, a simple procedure for testing the mutagenicity of compounds, which has been widely adopted in the field of toxicology.
  • Demonstrated the link between micronutrient deficiency and DNA damage, which can lead to cancer.
Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 0:33 0
“Most recently, Bruce and I have co-authored two papers together, one that was published last February on the role vitamin D plays in serotonin production and how this relates to autism.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 0:39 0
“And the second paper which was just recently accepted for publication is on vitamin D and the marine omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA, and what role they play in ADHD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and impulsive behavior.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 4:47 0
“So after McGregor showed that folic acid deficiency broke human chromosomes and broke mouse chromosomes, I got a bit of an epiphany.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 5:31 0
“Vitamins, most of them, are co-enzymes for some enzyme in metabolism that's doing some work. And one pathway that folic acid is involved with is putting one-carbon units into DNA and into RNA.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 7:52 0
“So when I realized that half the poor were at a level of folic acid where they were breaking their chromosomes, and the poor tend to eat the worst diet.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 8:49 0
“You need 30 different substances to run your metabolism. They're co-factors for enzymes mostly, and if you don't get any one, you die.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 10:09 0
“Zinc is in 2000 enzymes that have zinc fingers or otherwise need zinc. And magnesium's in 500 enzymes or so. Every DNA repair enzyme has magnesium in it.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 14:28 0
“So she turned out two beautiful reviews, one on vitamin K and one on selenium. And they both have the system for rationing so that, for example, in vitamin K, the clotting proteins get it first, and only after they're satisfied do you prevent calcification of the arteries or prevent cancer or prevent bone fractures.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 15:57 0
“And what it is is a compound used in photosynthesis in plants, so anything green has it.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 16:41 0
“Yeah, I think the vitamin K is a good one to talk about because I think, you know, there's two biologically active forms of vitamin K, vitamin K1 and vitamin K2.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 17:28 0
“Like vitamin K2, which is found in, you know, fermented, you know, foods like natto...”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 18:33 0
“People who take Coumadin or it's also called warfarin, it's an anti-clotting protein so you don't get thrombosis, 30 million people take that. Well, they get calcification in the arteries at a much higher rate, and they get bone fractures at a much higher rate.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 23:40 0
“So now I go and work out twice a week.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 24:15 0
“Americans are eating all these empty calories.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 25:52 0
“The two carotenoids are these orange pigments in every plant. The reason they turn orange in the fall in New England is because the chlorophyll goes away and you're left with this orange carotenoid. Beta carotene is a good example.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 27:50 0
“In the macula of the eye, that yellow color absorbs blue light, which is the most toxic form of light. So it keeps your eyes from oxidizing in the key part of your eye.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 31:20 0
“You need to eat your greens to get vitamin K and magnesium in the center of the chlorophyll”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 31:33 0
“All those you get from your greens. So you need to eat greens.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 31:33 0
“And then you need to eat some nuts. You get some good things from nuts.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 31:43 0
“And then you need to eat fish because you get the omega-3 fatty acids, which are critical for brain function.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 33:31 0
“If you put an Irishman in Australia, they're in deep trouble, and the solution is a hat and sunscreen.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 33:39 0
“And if you put an African American in Chicago, they're in deep trouble because in a northern latitude, if you have a dark skin, you're not making your vitamin D, and you need to do something about it.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 34:05 0
“70% of the U.S. population, you know, is not getting enough.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 39:27 0
“Nature has conveniently colored it green for you because it's in plants. And so eat something. Eat a plate of spinach or kale or whatever, a couple often, because you need to get your magnesium.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 39:52 0
“Plus, genetics is really important, too. So if you have a polymorphism, an alternate form of some gene, that means that you need more magnesium than the next fellow or more vitamin D than the next fellow, then you'll wanna know that.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 40:41 0
“I know I was recently looking at my multivitamin, and I saw that for vitamin A, which, as you mentioned, beta carotene is a carotenoid that can be converted into vitamin A, that, you know, the vitamin A source was beta carotene.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 41:58 0
“I have an Italian wife, and she feeds me a wonderful Mediterranean diet. We eat lots of fish and veggies, and Italians cook veggies in wonderful ways, with olive oil and garlic.”

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Bruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
Understanding Nutritional Essentials for Optimal Health and Longevity 42:30 0
“But I'm not out in the sun, both for a genetic reason and because I'm in the lab all the time, so I make sure to take a vitamin D pill.”

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