International - April 2014 Archives

Collaboration to support medical innovation, improvements in patient care and the economy Ireland — Mayo Clinic today announced a five-year collaboration with Enterprise Ireland, the Irish enterprise development agency, to advance novel medical technologies originating from Mayo Clinic. The announcement was made this morning in Dublin by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny T.D., the prime minister of Ireland, at the Medical Device 360° conference. Journalists: B-roll and sound bites with Mayo and Enterprise leaders are available in the downloads. This is a unique collaboration providing an alternative source of funding for translational medical research, especially significant at a time when U.S. funding for research is challenging to obtain. Enterprise Ireland has committed up to $16 million in the agreement. “This collaboration bridges a financial gap for translational research,” says Greg Gores, M.D. , executive dean for research at Mayo Clinic. “It provides funding in between the early-stage basic research and the stage when a technology is ready for the marketplace. In the U.S., this stage is expensive and difficult to fund. We are providing the technologies and Enterprise Ireland the funding. Both of us are contributing to technology advancement.” The novel medical technologies are Mayo Clinic innovations that have the potential to make it easier for patients to be diagnosed or treated. The development of one technology is already underway at National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI.G). The inventor, Vijay Singh, M.B.B.S., a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, developed a device to treat acute pancreatitis, a disease in which the pancreas is rapidly damaged, causing excruciating pain and often resulting in prolonged hospitalization or sometimes death. Experts at NUI.G are currently preparing the device for human clinical trials, which will be conducted by the university.