Kirsten Bell
she/her/elle
Overview
Kirsten Bell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University. Bell’s laboratory explores the relationship between fat (dietary fat and adipose tissue) and metabolic health. Aging is associated with distinct body composition changes, such as increased abdominal adiposity and deteriorations to skeletal muscle quality, that increase the risk of metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes. Bell’s research focuses on understanding mechanisms of lipid-induced insulin resistance through diet interventions (e.g., high-fat overfeeding or fatty acid supplementation) and by studying patterns of adipose tissue storage in human models of metabolic dysfunction, such as aging, type 2 diabetes and cancer. She is also investigating how to develop innovative ultrasound-based techniques to non-invasively and directly measure muscle fat infiltration in humans, with the ultimate goal of implementing these tools to track metabolic health in clinical and community settings.
Affiliations
- Assistant Professor
- Faculty of Science, McMaster University
- Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Faculty of Science
Education
- BSc, McMaster University
- MSc, University of Waterloo
- PhD, McMaster University
- Postdoc, Integrative Metabolism and Body Composition Lab, University of Waterloo
