SR9011 is a synthetic research compound that activates REV-ERBα and REV-ERBβ, two nuclear receptors that help run the body’s internal 24-hour (circadian) clock. Thomas Burris’s group at the Scripps Research Institute introduced it in 2012 together with its close relative SR9009 (Stenabolic), as tools for studying how the clock controls behavior and metabolism (Solt et al., Nature 2012). It is sometimes sold online alongside SARMs, but it does not act on the androgen receptor.

The single most important fact: SR9011 has never been tested in people. There are no registered human trials and no published human pharmacokinetic or safety data. Everything known about it comes from mice and cell culture, almost always with the drug injected into the abdomen at 100 mg/kg.

This page summarizes what the animal studies, cell studies and anti-doping laboratories report. It is for education only and is not medical advice.

Property	Detail
Class	Synthetic REV-ERBα/β agonist (circadian clock modulator); not a SARM
Origin	Scripps Research Institute, first reported 2012 alongside SR9009
Approval	None. Never approved anywhere; no registered human trials
Route in studies	Intraperitoneal injection in mice, usually 100 mg/kg once or twice daily
Human dose	None established; no human dosing data exist
Half-life	Not determined in humans or reported in the primary mouse papers
Potency (cell assay)	IC50 790 nM at REV-ERBα and 560 nM at REV-ERBβ
WADA status	Prohibited at all times (S4.4.1, “Rev-erbα agonists, e.g. SR9009, SR9011”)
US controlled substance	Not listed in Schedule III

What it is

SR9011 is a small synthetic molecule, 3-[[(4-chlorophenyl)methyl-[(5-nitrothiophen-2-yl)methyl]amino]methyl]-N-pentylpyrrolidine-1-carboxamide. Its formula is C₂₃H₃₁ClN₄O₃S, and its molecular weight is 479.0 g/mol (PubChem). It is not a steroid.

SR9011 and SR9009 share the same core: a nitrothiophene ring and a chlorobenzyl group attached to a central nitrogen, linked to a pyrrolidine ring. They differ only in the group capping the pyrrolidine nitrogen. In the original synthesis, the shared intermediate was finished with ethyl chloroformate to make SR9009 (an ethyl carbamate) or with pentyl isocyanate to make SR9011 (an N-pentyl urea) (Solt et al., Nature 2012). Both were derived from an earlier REV-ERB ligand, GSK4112, which showed no plasma exposure and so could not be studied in animals.

Feature	SR9011	SR9009
Group on the pyrrolidine nitrogen	N-pentyl carboxamide (urea)	Ethyl carbamate
Formula	C₂₃H₃₁ClN₄O₃S	C₂₀H₂₄ClN₃O₄S
Molecular weight	479.0 g/mol	437.9 g/mol
REV-ERBα, IC50	790 nM	670 nM
REV-ERBβ, IC50	560 nM	800 nM
BMAL1-promoter reporter, IC50	620 nM	710 nM

Formula and weight from PubChem (SR9011, SR9009); potency from cell assays in Solt et al., Nature 2012.

REV-ERBα (gene NR1D1) and REV-ERBβ (NR1D2) are nuclear receptors that switch genes off. In the daily clock they repress BMAL1, a core clock gene, and they also regulate genes for fat and glucose metabolism. In the studies that compared them directly, the two compounds behaved very similarly in cells and mice (Banerjee et al., Nat Commun 2014; Sulli et al., Nature 2018). The SR9009 page covers the shared background in more depth.

How it behaves in the body

No human pharmacokinetic study exists, so absorption, half-life and safe exposure in people are unknown. What is known:

Route and dose in studies. The mouse studies gave SR9011 by intraperitoneal (abdominal) injection, typically 100 mg/kg, as a single dose or twice daily for 3–12 days (Solt et al., Nature 2012; Banerjee et al., Nat Commun 2014). No study of oral SR9011 was found.
Exposure in mice. The original paper reported “reasonable plasma exposure” after injection, enough to suppress REV-ERB target genes in the liver in a dose-dependent way. The dose giving half the maximal effect (ED50) was 67 mg/kg for suppression of the liver gene Srebf1 and 56 mg/kg for suppression of wheel running (Solt et al., Nature 2012).
Metabolism. In human liver microsomes (liver enzymes in a test tube), anti-doping chemists detected 14 SR9011 metabolites, compared with 8 for SR9009 (Geldof et al., Int J Mol Sci 2016). How SR9011 is handled in a living person has not been published in a peer-reviewed study.

Regulatory status

Not an approved drug. SR9011 has no FDA, EMA or other marketing approval, and a search of ClinicalTrials.gov finds no registered human study (ClinicalTrials.gov).
Sport. WADA lists “Rev-erbα agonists, e.g. SR9009, SR9011” under S4.4.1 metabolic modulators, prohibited in and out of competition (WADA 2026 Prohibited List). The same group covers PPARδ agonists such as Cardarine (GW501516).
US drug scheduling. SR9011 is not named among the Schedule III anabolic steroids (21 CFR 1308.13).

What the research shows

All data below come from animals or cells. No controlled human data exist for any outcome.

Body clock and behavior in mice

In the 2012 Nature paper, SR9011 dampened the rhythm of the brain’s master clock in tissue culture without changing its period. In mice kept in constant darkness, a single 100 mg/kg injection wiped out the next active period, and the effect was dose-dependent. In normal light-dark conditions, one injection delayed the start of activity by 1–3 h and shifted the daily peak in oxygen use by about 3 h. Treated mice showed no loss of strength and still moved normally in an open-field test (Solt et al., Nature 2012).

Energy use and fat mass in mice

The same paper measured metabolism in mice injected with SR9011 twice daily for 10 days in metabolic cages, and lipids in a separate experiment in lean mice (Solt et al., Nature 2012):

Outcome in mice	SR9011 vs vehicle
Oxygen consumption (energy expenditure)	+5%
Movement	−15%
Total daily food intake	No change (nocturnal intake +10%)
Respiratory exchange ratio (fuel mix)	No change
Fat mass	Decreased
Fasting plasma triglycerides and cholesterol	Decreased

In the liver, SR9011 suppressed genes for fat production (lipogenesis), and it changed the daily pattern of metabolic genes in liver, muscle and fat tissue. These are short mouse studies; the larger fat-loss experiment in obese mice used SR9009, not SR9011.

Sleep and anxiety-like behavior in mice

A 2014 study used SR9011 as its main tool (Banerjee et al., Nat Commun 2014):

Sleep. A single 100 mg/kg injection in the middle of the mice’s rest period caused wakefulness for about 2 h and almost completely suppressed REM sleep for 3 h, followed by recovery sleep later. Given during the active period, it had no effect on sleep.
Anxiety-like behavior. After 3–10 days of 100 mg/kg twice daily, mice behaved less anxiously across several tests. For example, they buried only 50% as many marbles as controls. The effect size was similar to the anti-anxiety drug chlordiazepoxide, and it was absent in mice lacking REV-ERBβ.
Reward. SR9011 did not cause place preference or aversion on its own and blocked the place preference produced by cocaine.

Muscle cells

In mouse muscle cells in culture, SR9011 at 5 μM increased the number of total and active mitochondria, as SR9009 did (Woldt et al., Nat Med 2013). The treadmill endurance result from that paper, often quoted for this class, was obtained with SR9009 in mice. No study has tested SR9011 on endurance, muscle size or strength in animals or people.

Cancer cells

Breast cancer cells. SR9011 slowed the growth of breast cancer cell lines regardless of hormone-receptor or HER2 status, by stalling the cell cycle, while having no effect on a non-cancerous breast cell line (Wang et al., Biochem Pharmacol 2015).
Other cancer cells. SR9011 killed several cancer cell lines and oncogene-driven senescent cells in culture while sparing normal cells. The mouse tumor experiments in that study used SR9009, not SR9011 (Sulli et al., Nature 2018).

None of this has been tested in patients.

Red blood cell production

A 2024 mouse study found that REV-ERBα represses the gene for erythropoietin (EPO), the hormone that drives red blood cell production. In mice given a drug that mimics low oxygen, SR9011 at 100 mg/kg by injection lowered EPO gene activity in kidney and liver, lowered blood EPO, and reduced the resulting rise in red cell indices (Kumar et al., Blood Adv 2024). Whether SR9011 affects red cell production in people is unknown.

Side effects and risks

No human safety data

SR9011 has never been given to people in a study, so its side effects, safe dose and long-term effects are unknown. No published case report of human harm specific to SR9011 was found. Statements in the mouse papers about “no overt toxicity”, such as normal blood counts, refer to short courses of injections in mice.

Effects on sleep and the body clock

SR9011 was designed to disrupt the body clock. In mice it suppressed REM sleep, delayed daily activity and shifted metabolic rhythms (see above). Whether similar effects occur in people is unknown.

Off-target effects

A 2019 study showed that SR9009 changes cell viability and metabolism even in cells lacking both REV-ERBs (Dierickx et al., PNAS 2019). That study did not test SR9011. Because the two compounds share a scaffold, effects attributed to REV-ERB in SR9011 studies should be read with the same caution, but this has not been shown directly.

Product quality

Products sold online as research chemicals are often not what the label says. A 2017 JAMA analysis of 44 products sold as SARMs found that only 52% contained a SARM, 39% contained another unapproved drug (including SR9009), and only 41% had the labeled amount of active compound (Van Wagoner et al., JAMA 2017). No similar analysis of products labeled as SR9011 was found.

Athletes

Tested athletes face an anti-doping violation for any SR9011 use, in or out of competition. Laboratories have characterized its metabolites in vitro; a retrospective check of 1,511 routine doping-control urine samples from 2015 found neither SR9011 nor its metabolites (Geldof et al., Int J Mol Sci 2016). A validated method also measures SR9011 in horse plasma (Kwak et al., Drug Test Anal 2022).

Key takeaways

A circadian clock drug, not a SARM. SR9011 activates the REV-ERB nuclear receptors and differs from SR9009 only in one side group.
No human data at all. There are no trials, no human pharmacokinetic data and no established dose; the listed half-life is not supported by a primary source.
Mouse effects are clock and metabolism effects. Injected SR9011 shifted daily rhythms, raised energy use by 5%, lowered fat mass and suppressed REM sleep in mice.
Muscle and endurance claims are borrowed. The endurance result comes from SR9009; SR9011 has only been shown to raise mitochondria in cultured muscle cells.
It may lower EPO. In a mouse model of excess red cell production, SR9011 reduced erythropoietin and red cell indices. Its effect in people is unknown.
Banned in sport. WADA prohibits SR9011 at all times.

Sources

Solt LA, Wang Y, Banerjee S, et al. Regulation of circadian behaviour and metabolism by synthetic REV-ERB agonists. Nature. 2012;485(7396):62–68. PubMed.
Banerjee S, Wang Y, Solt LA, et al. Pharmacological targeting of the mammalian clock regulates sleep architecture and emotional behaviour. Nat Commun. 2014;5:5759. PubMed.
Woldt E, Sebti Y, Solt LA, et al. Rev-erb-α modulates skeletal muscle oxidative capacity by regulating mitochondrial biogenesis and autophagy. Nat Med. 2013;19(8):1039–1046. PubMed.
Wang Y, Kojetin D, Burris TP. Anti-proliferative actions of a synthetic REV-ERBα/β agonist in breast cancer cells. Biochem Pharmacol. 2015;96(4):315–322. PubMed.
Sulli G, Rommel A, Wang X, et al. Pharmacological activation of REV-ERBs is lethal in cancer and oncogene-induced senescence. Nature. 2018;553(7688):351–355. PubMed.
Kumar S, Arora R, Gupta S, et al. Nuclear receptor Rev-erbα role in fine-tuning erythropoietin gene expression. Blood Adv. 2024;8(14):3705–3717. PubMed.
Dierickx P, Emmett MJ, Jiang C, et al. SR9009 has REV-ERB-independent effects on cell proliferation and metabolism. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019;116(25):12147–12152. PubMed.
Geldof L, Deventer K, Roels K, et al. In vitro metabolic studies of REV-ERB agonists SR9009 and SR9011. Int J Mol Sci. 2016;17(10):1676. PubMed.
Kwak YB, Yu J, Yoo HH. A quantitative method for the simultaneous detection of SR9009 and SR9011 in equine plasma using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry. Drug Test Anal. 2022;14(8):1532–1538. PubMed.
Van Wagoner RM, Eichner A, Bhasin S, et al. Chemical composition and labeling of substances marketed as selective androgen receptor modulators and sold via the internet. JAMA. 2017;318(20):2004–2010. PubMed.
National Center for Biotechnology Information. PubChem Compound Summary for CID 57394021, SR9011. PubChem.
National Center for Biotechnology Information. PubChem Compound Summary for CID 57394020, SR9009. PubChem.
World Anti-Doping Agency. The 2026 Prohibited List: International Standard. In effect January 1, 2026. WADA 2026 Prohibited List.
Code of Federal Regulations. 21 CFR 1308.13, Schedule III. 21 CFR 1308.13.
ClinicalTrials.gov. Search results for “SR9011” (no registered studies, searched October 2026). ClinicalTrials.gov.

SR9011