Altes Receives MRI Association Fellowship

Talissa Altes, MD, chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, has received a 2017 fellowship award from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM).

Altes received the award at the ISMRM annual meeting held in April in Hawaii.

“It’s an honor to receive this fellowship, and I look forward to advancing the study of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with this award,” Altes said. “My goal is to improve the lives of patients with impaired lung function, and this award will help study new paths toward that goal.”

The fellowship will be used to further her research into the use of the contrast agent hyperpolarized gas in MRI to monitor lung function in newborns and young children. Her early observations and her leadership have resulted in identifying a number of applications of hyperpolarized gas in the management of children’s lung diseases, as well as emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The author of more than 80 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, Altes has served as a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. She has given more than 60 invited lectures to groups including the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the NIH.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Clarkson College of Technology in Potsdam, New York, Altes attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a master’s degree in electrical engineering. She earned her medical degree from the University of Washington in Seattle and a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Altes trained as a resident in radiology at the University of Virginia and completed a fellowship in pediatric radiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.