Melissa Petersen

Melissa Petersen is a Senior Professor at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. Her research focuses on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, with specific interests in blood-based biomarkers, cognitive impairment, and the neuroscience of aging across diverse populations. Her latest work applies machine learning to plasma AT(N) biomarkers in Down syndrome and examines cardiometabolic disease and cognitive vulnerability in high-risk, multi-ethnic cohorts, including the Health and Aging Brain Study–Health Disparities (HABS-HD). She has contributed extensively to the Alzheimer’s Biomarker Consortium–Down Syndrome (ABC-DS) and published recent findings in *Alzheimer’s & Dementia* and the *Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease*, advancing precision medicine and health disparities research in geriatrics.