Research
August 12, 2020
Could population genetic screening improve public health?
Hereditary BRCA-related breast and ovarian cancer, Lynch syndrome and familial hypercholesterolemia are estimated to be relatively prevalent in the general population but poorly found using traditional risk screening. In a typical medical practice, genetic testing for these conditions is based on personal or family history, ethnic background or other demographic characteristics, that may not always […]
Tags: #Familial hypercholesterolemia, breast cancer, Dr. Matthew Ferber, lynch syndrome, mayo clinic, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, ovarian cancer, population health genomics, Research
August 4, 2020
COVID-19 “Live” Virus Research In a Specialized Lab
By Sara Tiner 
To solve the challenges presented by COVID-19, it’s important to look to the past. History shows that collaboration is the way forward when uncovering secrets of an emerging virus. It is vital for many reasons, a key one being safety. Only a few labs can safely handle a “live,” meaning infectious, sample. No one knows […]
Tags: covid-19
July 6, 2020
By Susan Murphy 
By Dana Sparks As COVID-19 continues to cause concern and consume people’s lives across the globe, Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious diseases expert and head of Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, offers some insights and answers on the status of the pandemic. Scientists around the world are working feverishly on vaccines, what’s the status of vaccine research? The U.S. Food […]
Tags: covid-19
July 1, 2020
By Susan Murphy
In recognition of their high impact work of advancing the field of genetic risk profiling for disease risk stratification, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Mayo Clinic researchers Iftikhar Kullo, M.D. and Richard Sharp Ph.D. part of $75 million in funding over five years to improve the role of genomics in assessing and […]
Tags: Bioethics, Cardiovascular Disease, Genetics
June 29, 2020
Mayo Clinic COVID-19 modeling for patients, communities
By Susan Murphy
By Elizabeth Zimmermann| Discovery’s Edge Building predictions based on a set of variables, an effort called modeling, has gotten a lot of airtime during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding both the virus and the disease, including how it spreads and its impacts on population health, guides advice to the public on how to stay safe. At […]
June 23, 2020
Controversial CRISPR case in China raises stakes for how genetic research is conducted
By Jay Furst
Mayo Clinic colleagues take a close look at what went wrong with the process in China and how it challenged the implicit “social contract” between science and society In November 2018, a Chinese biophysicist used a gene-editing technique known by the acronym CRISPR to edit human embryos for reproductive purposes, and he announced the birth […]
June 8, 2020
Unanswered Questions Drive Convalescent Plasma Research
By Susan Murphy
By Sara Tiner On Saturday, March 14, in southwest Wisconsin, a woman was working in her yard, raking and clearing the first spring weeds. She coughed a bit during the day, and felt some achiness in her lower back, some fatigue. It was in the high 30s that day, but she was warm when she […]
May 11, 2020
AI enhances MRI images to identify molecular markers of brain cancer
By Sharon Rosen 
Five years ago Bradley Erickson, M.D., Ph.D. never would have imagined that an MRI would be able to identify the molecular characteristics of brain cancer. But because of the rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), that scenario isn’t science fiction. It’s an exciting medical reality for Dr. Erickson, a radiologist on Mayo Clinic’s campus in […]
Tags: artificial intelligence, cancer, gliomas
April 27, 2020
Noninvasive test may help some patients with melanoma avoid lymph node biopsy
By Jay Furst
A Mayo Clinic-led research team has developed a test for patients who have melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, that shows whether they’re at risk of the cancer spreading to other areas of the body. The research, described in the journal JCO Precision Oncology, could allow some patients at low risk of metastasis […]
April 25, 2020
Why do diseases such as COVID-19 and cancer hit some people harder than others?
By Susan Murphy
As the nation marks DNA Day on April 25 — commemorating the discovery of DNA’s double helix in 1953 and the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 — Mayo Clinic researcher Nicholas Chia, Ph.D., continues to search for answers to the question of why some people are more susceptible to getting a severe […]
Tags: cancer genomics, DNA, genomics, microbiome, rare disease