The NextGen Precision Health Discovery Series provides learning opportunities for UM System faculty and staff across disciplines, the statewide community and our other partners to learn about the scope of precision health research and identify potential collaborative opportunities. The series consists of monthly lectures geared toward a broad multidisciplinary audience so all can participate and appreciate the spectrum of precision health efforts.
Information about the upcoming talk, including continuing education, is available below.
For questions about this event or any others in the Discovery Series, please reach out to Mary Christie at mchristie@health.missouri.edu
Growing Team Science: Building biochemistry into the human connect me project
Speaker: Melissa Terpstra, PhD, Director of the NextGen Imaging Facility
Description
In this talk, Dr. Terpstra described how noninvasive measures of human brain chemistry are related to cognitive performance, aging and Alzheimer’s disease. To make these measurements, she uses Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners like the state-of-the-art 7T Siemens Terra that is sited in the new NextGen Precision Health facility. She demonstrated how this powerful instrument and approach are being trained to reach toward person-specific precision so they can be used to prevent and manage cognitive decline. Dr. Terpstra's work exemplifies the importance of team science and industry partnership in bringing new technology to patient care and provides a glimpse of how this is developing at NextGen.
About the Speaker 
Prof. Terpstra has a PhD in medical physics and is an expert on uncovering tiny signals in magnetic resonance spectra (MRS) using ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Notably, she discovered and optimized techniques to measure signals from vitamin C and other antioxidants and neurotransmitters noninvasively from the human brain using MRI. She launched her independent career by applying this technology to study aging and Alzheimer’s disease via sustained funding from the National Institutes of Health. Furthermore, she continues to study the reliability of in vivo human brain MRS technique. Prof. Terpstra is a principal investigator on the nationwide Human Connectome Project on Aging (HCPA), which collected structural, functional, and diffusion images from over 1000 individuals. With an accompanying R01, she acquired MRS data from her local HCPA cohort, and MRS will be part of the upcoming nationwide project, the Adult Aging Brain Connectome. These consortia also collect extensive health, behavioral, cognitive, and COVID data. Prof. Terpstra reviews for several journals and study sections at the National Institutes of Health. As director of the NextGen imaging facility, Prof. Terpstra will expand her leadership role and collaborate in new areas.
Continuing Professional Education Credit
Nurses
Up to 1.0 contact hour will be awarded to all participants who view the live sessions in their entirety and complete the evaluation form.
University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing is approved as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the Midwest Multistate Division, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
Midwest Multistate Division Provider Number MO1022-6
Physicians
The Office of Continuing Education, School of Medicine, University of Missouri is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The Office of Continuing Education, School of Medicine, University of Missouri designates this live educational activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Financial Relationship Disclosure: Current ACCME (Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education) and Midwest Multistate Division, ANCC (American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation) rules state that participants in CE activities should be made aware of any relevant affiliation or financial interest in the previous 24 months that may affect the planning of an educational activity or a speaker’s presentation(s). Each planning committee member and speaker has been requested to complete a conflict of interest statement for the NextGen Precision Health Discovery Series. No planning committee member or speaker has a relevant financial interest.