Jennifer W Bea, PhD
Biography
Jennifer W. Bea, PhD is a physiological scientist, focused on body composition and chronic disease research, with an emphasis on cancer. She is the Director of the Body Composition Research Laboratory, a UACC Cancer Prevention and Control Co-Leader, and a member of the Collaboratory for Metabolic Disease Prevention and Treatment at UA. As an expert in body composition imaging, lifestyle interventions, and circulating biomarkers, Dr. Bea has made significant strides in understanding how to tailor interventions to optimize body composition and health, particularly related to health disparities.
Cancer Focus
Dr. Bea has evaluated risk factors for cancer across the lifespan, lifestyle, and obesity being predominate. Among many contributions to interventional cancer prevention and control (CPC) are Dr. Bea’s investigations into weight loss, and separately, resistance training on metabolic regulation and change in body composition among postmenopausal breast cancer survivors. Dr. Bea has also led seminal dyadic lifestyle interventions among male and female Native American cancer survivors called, Restoring Balance in Indian Country and female Hispanic/Latina cancer survivors called Vida Plena. Epidemiologic investigations have examined adiposity and novel endocrine factors related to cancer incidence and mortality. She has significantly contributed to understanding early life markers of cancer risk, such as excess adiposity, metabolic dysfunction, and inflammation among young girls. Cancer prevention and control training is a passion for Dr. Bea. She previously coordinated the CPC postdoctoral fellowship and is now the Contact PI of STEP-UP, an R25 CPC training program for undergraduate and early graduate students, and the Research Education Core Lead for the Partnership for Native American Cancer Prevention.