Doctor behind “free radical” aging theory dies

Denham Harman’swork is still used in studies of cancer and Alzheimer’s.

omaha » Dr. Denham Harman, a renowned scientistwho developed a prominent theory on aging that’s now used to study cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other illnesses, has died at age 98.

Harman worked into his mid-90s after a brief illness, University of Nebraska Medical Center spokesman TomO’Connor said.

Harman developed the “Free RadicalTheory of Aging” in 1954, although it took years for additional research to prove its importance. The theory holds that one of the byproducts of oxygen utilization is adverse chemical reactions in cells, which results in aging and, ultimately, death.

The medical community initially scoffed at the theory proposed by Harman, who also contributed to nearly three dozen patents between earning his doctorate in chemistry at the University of California in 1943 and his medical degree from Stanford in 1954.

But by the 1980s, free radicals had become part of research into cancer, cardiovascular disease, strokes and Alzheimer’s disease.

Harman believed that the aging process could be slowed by reducing the production of free radicals with a healthy diet, regular exercise and taking certain vitamins.

The director of the National Institute on Aging, Dr. RichardHodes, said that Harman was a pioneer of aging research.

“The free radical hypothesis has been a central element of the field ever since Dr. Harman’s landmark paper,” Hodes said.

“Beyond his own work and continued exploration of the free radical hypothesis, Dr. Harman’s contribution to science has helped lay the foundation for important, related areas of inquiry such as the mitochondrial and DNA damage hypotheses.”

Harman’s theory remains influential in the field even though later research has identified other contributors to aging, said Steven Austad, who leads the biology department at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and focuses on aging research.

“That one big idea he had basically stimulated 60 years of research,” Austad said.