Amy Rebecca Bentley PhD

Amy R. Bentley is a Staff Scientist with the Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health (CRGGH). Her primary interest is in the complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors, particularly nutrition, in the etiology of chronic diseases. She was drawn to the CRGGH by the opportunity to investigate this complexity in the context of diverse populations and the accompanying spectrum of variation in both genetic and environmental backgrounds. Her work at the CRGGH centers on the genomics of serum lipid concentrations in populations of African ancestry and on the ways genomics research can exacerbate or ameliorate health disparities.

Dr. Bentley graduated from Guilford College in 1995 with a B.A. in English and Spanish and a minor in East Asian Studies after completing semesters abroad in Beijing, China, and Guadalajara, Mexico. After working at the University of Pennsylvania’s English Language Programs for several years, Dr. Bentley returned to school, completing a B.S. in Nutrition from LaSalle University in 2003. With the support of an NIH training grant, Dr. Bentley did graduate work at Cornell University’s Division of Nutritional Sciences with a focus on nutritional epidemiology and chronic disease. After initial work on genetic risk factors associated with folate metabolism and risk of breast cancer in the Nurses’ Health Study, Dr. Bentley’s research centered on antioxidant defenses and pulmonary function in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Cohort. Specifically, her work focused on the changes in the pulmonary response to the oxidative stress from cigarette smoking that was associated with genetic variation in antioxidant enzymes or with dietary antioxidant intake.