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About

Leadership

Dr. Vilhelm (Will) Bohr, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc. Member

Dr. Bohr is one of the world’s most published researchers on aging and neurodegenerative disease with over 590 journal publications. For the past 30 years, Dr. Bohr served as Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics at the National Institute on Aging, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. 

Dr. Bohr earned his M.D., Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. After training in neurology and infectious diseases at the University Hospital in Copenhagen, Dr. Bohr undertook postdoctoral studies in Biochemistry in the laboratory of Dr. Hans Klenow at the University of Copenhagen, where he first became interested in nucleic acid metabolism. He developed this interest further in the laboratory of Dr. Philip Hanawalt at Stanford University where he held a Visiting Scholar position. Throughout his career, Dr. Bohr has made significant contributions and advanced understanding of DNA repair pathways, mechanisms and cellular response to oxidative DNA damage and oxidative stress. 

In his recent studies, Dr. Bohr has made seminal findings about the relationships between DNA damage, DNA repair capacity and age-associated neurodegeneration. Additionally, he has proposed important models describing the transfer of signals between the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes, and showcased the importance of energy homeostasis/imbalance and mitochondrial dysfunction in aging-related neurodegenerative disease. Although retiring from the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Bohr will maintain a research lab at the University of Copenhagen where he will continue to study the benefits of NR.