Dr. Rhonda Patrick is a scientist and health educator recognized for her leadership in nutrition, aging, and disease prevention. As the founder of FoundMyFitness, she shares expert, evidence-based insights on aging and disease prevention with her own unique brand of scientific rigor, engaging millions through her website, podcast, and YouTube channel.

Dr. Patrick earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Science, conducting her graduate research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where she investigated the link between mitochondrial metabolism, apoptosis, and cancer. Her groundbreaking work discovered that a protein critical for cell survival has two distinct mitochondrial localizations with disparate functions, linking its anti-apoptotic role to a previously unrecognized role in mitochondrial respiration and maintenance of mitochondrial structure. Her dissertation findings were published in the 2012 issue of Nature Cell Biology.

She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute with Dr. Bruce Ames, renowned developer of the Ames test for carcinogenicity. There, she investigated the effects of micronutrient (vitamin and mineral) inadequacies on metabolism, inflammation, DNA damage, and aging, and whether supplementation can reverse the damage. Additionally, she researched the role of vitamin D in brain function, behavior, and other physiological functions. In February 2014, she published a paper in the FASEB Journal on how vitamin D regulates serotonin synthesis and its relevance to autism.