Jeanne Becker, Ph.D.

Jeanne L. Becker, Ph.D. is Associate Director of the John M. Eisenberg Center for Clinical Decisions and Communications Science, a partner organization to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. She holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Surgery, at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Becker is a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Women’s Health Research Coalition, a Washington DC-based network of leaders in academic medical, health and scientific institutions, and she currently serves as Chair of the Coalition. She serves on the Board of Directors of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology, is a Science Advisor to the Pete Conrad Foundation, and is a recipient of NASA Space Life Sciences Directorate Professional Achievement Award.

Dr. Becker’s research has focused on the development of three-dimensional models of human breast and ovarian cancer, using the Rotating Wall Vessel. The work was selected for a flight experiment and was conducted as a 14-day study aboard the International Space Station during Increment 3. The three dimensional cellular constructs of breast and ovarian cancer developed in this model reproduce many aspects of cancer, by creating tissue-like architecture with rapid onset drug resistance, as occurs in human disease. In addition, she has developed a novel cell culture paradigm based upon diamagnetically stabilized magnet levitation; two patents have been filed on this technology. Dr. Becker has had the opportunity to testify on several occasions before the United States Congress on her work and on the space program’s contributions to medical research.