In this unconventional time, we are going to offer an unconventional article, really a collection of the previous week's news stories related to Mayo Clinic Research. Our plan - to share a brief excerpt and link to stories written by journalists around the world. Most will likely be about COVID-19, [...]

By Sharon Rosen Patients suffering from depression, anxiety and substance use disorders often search for years to find treatment. Studies have shown that during this time gap, patients’ symptoms worsen, increasing their risk for other chronic illnesses, shortened lifespan and poor quality of life. Mayo Clinic statistical geneticist Joanna Biernacka, Ph.D. and her colleagues [...]

A collaboration bringing together regional centers and advocacy groups to accelerate innovation and discovery is expanding, bringing clinical trials and expertise to more patients with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) across the country. Led by Mayo Clinic’s Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for HLHS, the collaboration began in 2017 and [...]

Jon Ebbert, M.D., is sympathetic to the plight of the patients he sees who are struggling with addiction. "I saw a lot of addiction growing up," he tells Rochester Magazine's Steve Lange. "I know the damage it can do." Dr. Ebbert, a Community Internal Medicine physician and researcher in Mayo Clinic's Nicotine Dependence [...]

Marina Walther-Antonio, Ph.D., came to Mayo Clinic to help start the Center for Individualized Medicine’s microbiome research program. In her previous job at NASA, she had worked with mathematicians, engineers, geologists, psychologists, and even political scientists to try to detect life in outer space. Mayo recruited her to look for [...]

Connection to COVID-19 People with COPD are at a greater risk of contracting COVID-19, and likely to experience much worse cases than people with healthy lungs. To help alleviate concerns, the COPD Foundation has set up a continuous blog with expert answers to questions related to COPD. In addition, the Centers [...]

Unrealistic. Selfish. Impossible.The words were lobbed at Waleed Gibreel, M.B.B.S., who has lived in the margins of two powerful forces that shaped him — his dream of becoming a top-flight surgeon and his reality of growing up in war-torn Sudan.“I knew as a child that my ultimate goal was to be [...]

According to a new paper in Nature Communications, a protein known to help cells defend against infection also helps their mitochondria. The protein, one in a group called myxovirus-resistance (Mx) protein, helps cells without calling in white blood cells.  But now, the researchers report it also helps cells by preventing [...]

At only 27-years-old, Morgan Cook recalls the days when she had an abundant amount of energy. “I would lift weights. I would do cardio. I would – you name it, I would do it. I was a lot more active,” says Cook. “I felt like I was able to do more [...]

Growing blood vessels in a lab for human use may sound like a futuristic dream. However, Mayo Clinic researchers are seeking to do just that to advance a regenerative approach to coronary bypass graft surgery. Through a Regenerative Medicine Minnesota grant, a Mayo research team is developing tissue that could [...]

By Sara Nick At Mayo Clinic, research and care often weave together. Many times this results in Mayo patients being the first to benefit from novel options for diagnosis or treatment. For instance, pulmonologists are testing the potential for new, minimally invasive procedures to diagnose and treat conditions including lung cancer [...]

Each month, we publish Mayo Clinic's Research News Roundup. This article includes brief summaries and links to news releases from the preceding month that discuss some of our latest medical research and/or research education. It also connects readers to related resources. Read on for recent findings of Mayo Clinic Research: Florida State University [...]

A Mayo Clinic graduate student is looking to the stars as a new way to advance regenerative therapies for cancer. Rawan Al-Kharboosh, a Ph.D. candidate at Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus, is investigating how stromal vascular fraction stem (SVF) cells react in microgravity and if that may be applied to fight [...]

February is American Heart Month, a time to acknowledge advancements in a new generation of care. This year focus is placed on repairing damaged heart tissue and restoring heart function after a heart attack. The Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Medicine is leading research into cardiac regeneration. Accounting for nearly 20 [...]

Engaging in research can be challenging and intimidating for those who have never done it before. Mayo Clinic’s pharmacy residency program ensures all its trainees are set up for success by offering research and scholarship education as a standard part of their curriculum.  A recent paper published in Currents in [...]

Everyone has heard of vitamin D. Most of us know that our bodies produce vitamin D when we spend time in the sun, and that if we don’t get enough sunlight, or if for some other reason our bodies don’t produce enough vitamin D, it’s not good. But why exactly is it bad for [...]

Mayo Clinic has launched a first of its kind regenerative transplant program aimed at restoring function for people who need their larynx, or voice box, removed. In the United States about 60,000 people are living without a larynx, due to disease or trauma. The larynx is a segment of the respiratory [...]

People with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia often rely on family caregivers to plan or assist with their medical care. But caregivers are not usually fully integrated in their family members’ clinical appointments or care plan. To identify gaps in care and communication, Mayo Clinic researchers have identified seven best practices for health care providers [...]

A collaborative team of Mayo Clinic scientists is studying an innovative strategy for treating advanced cancer, using genomics and human tumor samples as their guide. The novel approach, called Ex Vivo, creates a miniature cancer replica for testing therapies outside a patient’s body, combined with a comprehensive genomic analysis of [...]

When searching for an exact diagnosis through a myriad of complex and serious factors spread across millions of data points, it helps to have a powerful magnifying glass — and another expert point of view. Enter Arjun Athreya, Ph.D., an engineer by trade who has a knack for bringing together data [...]

Editor's note: This story is not about Mayo Clinic research, but rather about a part of a researcher's life that builds hope in little hearts, and gives him joy. It's 10 a.m. on a Thursday, and Merrick Ducharme is up to his elbows (OK, his wrists) in slime. The gooey, gluey [...]

Adrian Vella, M.D., says medical careers run like a hereditary condition in his family. “My father is a physician, my brother is a surgeon, and there are lots of medical people on my mother’s side as well.” So it was almost inevitable that, from an early age, he thought about [...]

According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, clinical decision support provides clinicians, staff, patients or other individuals with knowledge and person-specific information, intelligently filtered or presented at appropriate times, to enhance health and health care. At Mayo Clinic there are a range of activities surrounding [...]

Research is advancing a regenerative solution for a quality of life-limiting complication of mesh-based surgical repairs for stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse in women. While mesh-based surgical treatments are durable and provide symptom relief for a great number of patients, there is a risk of mesh complications following [...]

By Zuckerman Institute Communications Staff The protein tau has long been implicated in Alzheimer’s and a host of other debilitating brain diseases. But scientists have struggled to understand exactly how tau converts from its normal, functional form into a misfolded, harmful one. Now, researchers at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute and Mayo [...]