JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Mayo Clinic in Florida and Nemours Children's Health, Jacksonville announced today a 10-year extension of their three-decade collaboration to improve healthcare in the region and train future generations of physicians and healthcare workers. The collaboration will continue to focus on medical training, research and clinical care, specifically in pediatrics, where there are significant shortages of pediatricians in Florida and the U.S.

"We are committed to creating the healthiest generations of children and our partnership with Mayo helps to achieve that goal," says Michael Erhard, M.D., North Florida region president, Nemours Children’s Health, Jacksonville. "Mayo Clinic has been a fantastic partner to Nemours and we look forward to continuing to work together."

Mayo Clinic and Nemours have agreed to expand educational programs for staff, residents, fellows, students and other healthcare professionals; explore opportunities to advance cooperative programs of clinical and basic science research at both institutions; and explore future opportunities to collaborate. The two Jacksonville healthcare institutions first began their collaboration in 1993.

"We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Nemours," says Kent Thielen, M.D., CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida. "Our unwavering commitment to improving patient care, conducting groundbreaking research and fostering education will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the future of healthcare."

Mayo Clinic residents, fellows and staff obtain much-needed specialty training at Nemours, including medical rotations to obtain valuable hands-on experience in various subspecialties of pediatrics. This training is crucial in the wake of a significant shortage of pediatricians in Florida and the U.S. Florida is below the national average, with just 83 pediatricians for every 100,000 children, according to the American Board of Pediatrics. Across the U.S., physicians in many pediatric subspecialties are in short supply, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. This means children and families face challenges in accessing timely healthcare, including traveling long distances to get care, waiting weeks or months to get an appointment, going without care, or getting care from healthcare professionals who have less specialty training.

"This relationship has been critical for the development and expansion of the education programs at Mayo Clinic. Our medical school and many of our residency and fellowship programs would not have been possible without the training and mentorship efforts of our Nemours colleagues," says Gerardo Colon-Otero, M.D., vice dean, Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. "In addition, the stem cell transplant and CAR-T cell therapy programs have been strengthened as a single Mayo Clinic-Nemours clinical and research program. We look forward to future collaborations for the benefit of the Jacksonville community."

Another benefit of the collaboration is that Nemours clinical and research staff may be considered for appointment to the faculty of Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

"This announcement underscores the value and importance of partnerships between two academic institutions, aligned by a common mission to further the health of future generations of children through medical education partnership," says Raj Sheth, M.D. designated institutional official, Nemours Children’s Health, Jacksonville.

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About Nemours Children's Health
Nemours Children's Health is one of the nation's largest multistate pediatric health systems, which includes two free-standing children's hospitals and a network of more than 70 primary and specialty care practices. Nemours Children's seeks to transform the health of children by adopting a holistic health model that utilizes innovative, safe and high-quality care, while also caring for the health of the whole child beyond medicine. Nemours Children's also powers the world's most-visited website for information on the health of children and teens, Nemours KidsHealth.org.

The Nemours Foundation, established through the legacy and philanthropy of Alfred I. duPont, provides pediatric clinical care, research, education, advocacy and prevention programs to the children, families and communities it serves. For more information, visit Nemours.org.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine
Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine is a national medical school with four-year medical degree programs in Rochester and Arizona. The school also offers a Florida program, enabling students to complete their first two years of medical studies in Arizona or Minnesota, and their final two years of learning in Florida. For more information, visit Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine.

Media contacts:

• Leah Goodwyne, Nemours Children's Health, Jacksonville, leah.goodwyne@nemours.org
• Kevin Punsky, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic, Nemours Children’s Health, Jacksonville collaborate for pediatric care, medical education, research appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Pick's disease, a neurodegenerative disease of unknown genetic origin, is a rare type of frontotemporal dementia that affects people under the age of 65. The condition causes changes in personality, behavior and sometimes language impairment. In patients with the disease, tau proteins build up and form abnormal clumps called Pick bodies, which restrict nutrients to the brain and cause neurodegeneration. The only way to diagnose the disease is by looking at brain tissue under a microscope after a person dies.

Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida, University College London in England and collaborators worldwide have established the Pick's Disease International Consortium to study a specific MAPT gene variation known as MAPT H2 that makes the tau protein and acts as a driver of disease. They investigated a connection between the gene and disease risk, age at onset, and duration of Pick's disease. Their findings are reported in The Lancet Neurology.

Mayo Clinic researchers identified the first MAPT gene mutations for a behavioral form of dementia in 1998, and other genetic changes associated with related dementias in 2001, which paved the way to understanding the mechanisms of tau-related disease. This new study confirms a tau genetic factor linked specifically to Pick's disease and opens up new avenues of therapeutic design.

"Our research could have profound implications for the development of therapies for Pick's disease and other related neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy," says Owen Ross, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic neuroscientist and senior author of the paper. The consortium hosts a database of clinical, pathological and demographic information about patients with the disease who donated their brain tissue for science.

To conduct the study, researchers investigated brain samples of 338 patients confirmed to have Pick's disease to compare with blood samples from 1,312 neurologically healthy individuals. Patients confirmed to have the disease came from 35 brain banks and hospitals in North America, Europe and Australia between 2020 and 2023. The Mayo Clinic Brain Bank was among the sites in the study that provided the largest collection of samples.

Analyzing DNA from the blood samples and brain tissue, the research team recorded baseline information on study participants, including age at disease onset, age at death for those with Pick's disease, and sex and age at blood collection for the control group. Disease duration was calculated by the difference between age at Pick's disease onset and age at death. In addition, the researchers looked at clinical characteristics such as clinical diagnosis, impairment in behavior and language.

"We found that the MAPT H2 genetic variant is associated with an increased risk of Pick's disease in people of European descent," says Dr. Ross. "We were only able to determine that because of the global consortium, which greatly increased the sample size of pathology cases to study with Pick's disease."

The team's next steps are to expand the consortium to the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, further resolve the genetic architecture of the disease, and assess this specific genetic variant as a biomarker or test for clinical diagnosis of Pick's disease. There is currently no clinical test or diagnosis available for Pick's disease. For the first time, the creation of the consortium may allow for the development of a clinical test.

Funding for this research at Mayo Clinic was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the State of Florida Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program, and Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. For a full list of authors, collaborating institutions and disclosures, see the paper.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact: 

• Kevin Punsky, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu 

The post Global consortium to study Pick’s disease, rare form of early-onset dementia appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

The first-of-its-kind alliance moves into new regions to transform global healthcare and improve access, diagnostics and treatments for patients everywhere.  

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic Platform continues to expand its distributed data network, Mayo Clinic Platform_Connect¹, which now includes eight of the world's leading health systems across three continents: Seoul National University Hospital, SingHealth and UC Davis Health, which join Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Mayo Clinic, Mercy, Sheba Medical Center and University Health Network (UHN) as founding members. The global network makes available years of de-identified multimodal clinical data to help improve patient care by providing a new healthcare architecture that allows more tailored medicine, healthcare products, digital services and solutions based on artificial intelligence. Mayo Clinic now has four of the top 11 hospitals in the world on its Platform.  

Each member of Connect brings depth and breadth of clean, curated, de-identified data related to complex and rare health conditions; a wide range of treatments and therapies; and representation from diverse global regions, which is critical to improve accuracy, reduce model bias, and create more diverse, and therefore stronger, treatment recommendations for patients. Connect provides researchers and innovators with secure, cloud-based access to data using Mayo Clinic Platform's proprietary Data Behind Glass ² approach, where each healthcare system controls its data. 

"Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone for all of us," says Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO of Mayo Clinic. "As we deliver on our goal of transforming healthcare, these partnerships will lead to more innovation, more collaboration, more answers, and more hope for those in need as we continue to build something that has never existed before in healthcare: a platform with truly global reach."

"The collaboration between Seoul National University Hospital and Mayo Clinic will play an important role in addressing health issues around the world and improving the quality of patient care. Through this partnership, we have new opportunities to improve access to disease diagnosis and treatment and to promote innovation. Extensive de-identified clinical data collected from different races and regions will enable us to provide more precise and more diverse healthcare, which will ultimately accelerate innovation in the medical systems," says Young Tae Kim, M.D., president and CEO of Seoul National University Hospital. 

"We are excited to embark on this collaboration with Mayo Clinic, which underscores our core focus on advancing care to achieve the best outcomes for our patients. By creating synergies through collaborative data networks with the top healthcare systems in the world, we hope to unlock new insights to accelerate research, innovate care and optimize clinical impact and outcomes for patients, in Singapore and beyond," says Professor Lim Soon Thye, deputy group CEO, Research, Education and Innovation, SingHealth. 

"UC Davis Health is excited to collaborate with Mayo Clinic and explore ways to better support multi-site research, innovation and transformation. This network extends the work we are doing to advance the responsible and ethical development of generative AI-powered healthcare globally,” says Ashish Atreja, M.D., M.P.H, chief information officer, chief digital health officer of UC Davis Health, and founding chair, VALID AI.

Connect focuses on patient outcomes through the following:  

• Improved clinical decision-making: Using data-driven discovery and translation, health systems can make clinical decisions faster and more accurately. 
• Advanced healthcare solutions: With increased access to privacy-protected, de-identified data sets from around the world, innovators can create better solutions that serve all populations, including those traditionally underserved. 
• Expanded expert knowledge: By establishing a global network of connected data, clinicians will have expanded access to the knowledge of other experts, specialists and researchers. 

"Connect brings people and data together to create new knowledge and new solutions. To be effective, it is critical that the data represent the global population. With these founding members, we now have de-identified clinical data from 32 million patient lives across additional parts of the world. This depth and breadth of data enables solution developers to build and test models that are fair, appropriate, valid and effective, and will improve care for patients, no matter where they live," says John Halamka, M.D., president of Mayo Clinic Platform and co-founder and board chair of Coalition for Health AI (CHAI).    

^1,2Trademark pending 

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About Mayo Clinic Platform 
Founded on Mayo Clinic's dedication to patient-centered care, Mayo Clinic Platform enables new knowledge, new solutions and new technologies through collaborations with health technology innovators to create a healthier world.

About Mayo Clinic 
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.  

About Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein 
Founded in 1955, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein is a nonprofit organization and operates in private and public health in all stages of healthcare, teaching and education, consulting, research and innovation, and social responsibility. The service provision structure is comprised of 21 private and 30 units in the Public Health System and 11 teaching units. Einstein provides healthcare services to around 3 million people, educates more than 57,000 students from kindergarten to graduate school and carries out at any given time around 1,000 scientific and clinical research projects. 

About Mercy 
Mercy, one of the 25 largest U.S. health systems, serves millions annually with nationally recognized quality care and one of the nation's largest Accountable Care Organizations. Mercy is a highly integrated, multistate healthcare system including more than 40 acute care managed and specialty (heart, children's, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has 900 physician practices and outpatient facilities, 3,400 Mercy Clinic physicians and advanced practitioners and more than 40,000 coworkers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. 

About Sheba Medical Center 
The largest and most comprehensive medical center in the Middle East, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer is generating global impact through its medical care, research and healthcare transformation. Sheba’s City of Health boasts acute-care, rehabilitation, children’s, cancer and geriatric hospitals, the ARC innovation center, medical simulation center and center for disaster response on one comprehensive campus in the center of Israel.

About Seoul National University Hospital
Seoul National University Hospital is a national central hospital that leads in medical research and innovative treatment, continuously striving to enhance human health and happiness. With cutting-edge medical technology and specialized medical staff, it provides the highest level of clinical services for various diseases and contributes to the advancement of medical education and research.

About SingHealth
SingHealth, Singapore's largest public healthcare cluster, is committed to providing affordable, accessible and quality healthcare to patients. With a network of acute hospitals, national specialty centers, polyclinics and community hospitals offering over 40 clinical specialties, it delivers comprehensive, multidisciplinary and integrated care. Beyond hospital walls, SingHealth partners with community care providers to enable the population to keep well, get well and live well. As part of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, SingHealth also focuses on advancing education and research to continuously improve care outcomes for patients.

Members of the SingHealth group   

Hospitals (tertiary specialty care):  
Singapore General Hospital, Changi General Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital and KK Women's and Children's Hospital. 

National Specialty Centres (tertiary specialty care):  
National Cancer Centre Singapore, National Dental Centre Singapore, National Heart Centre Singapore, National Neuroscience Institute and Singapore National Eye Centre.

SingHealth Polyclinics (primary care):  
Bedok, Bukit Merah, Eunos, Marine Parade, Outram, Pasir Ris, Punggol, Sengkang, Tampines, Tampines North andKaki Bukit (upcoming).

SingHealth Community Hospitals (intermediate and long-term care):  
Bright Vision Community Hospital, Sengkang Community Hospital and Outram Community Hospital.

About UC Davis Health
UC Davis Health is improving lives and transforming healthcare by providing excellent patient care, conducting groundbreaking research, fostering innovative, interprofessional education and creating dynamic, productive partnerships. UC Davis Health harnesses the power of an entire university's nationally ranked resources and research to tackle the most pressing healthcare issues facing the world today. As the northern California region's only academic health center, UC Davis Health is focused on discovering and sharing knowledge and providing the highest quality of care and serves as a hub of innovation that encompasses UC Davis Medical Center, UC Davis School of Medicine, The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis and UC Davis Medical Group.

About University Health Network
University Health Network consists of Toronto General and Toronto Western Hospitals, the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and The Michener Institute of Education at University Health Network. The scope of research and complexity of cases at University Health Network has made it a national and international source for discovery, education and patient care. It has the largest hospital-based research program in Canada, with major research in cardiology, transplantation, neurosciences, oncology, surgical innovation, infectious diseases, genomic medicine and rehabilitation medicine. University Health Network is a research hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto.

Mayo Clinic media contact:  

• Terri Malloy, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu.

Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein media contact: 

• Estefânia Basso, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein Communications, estefania.basso@einstein.br.

Mercy media contact: 

• Maureen Richmond, Mercy Health Media Relations, MNRichmond@mercy.com.

Seoul National University Hospital media contact:

• Youngjoo Park, Seoul National University Public Relations, yjp@snuh.org.

Sheba Medical Center media contact:

• Steve Walz, Sheba Communications, Steve.Walz@sheba.health.gov.il.

SingHealth media contact: 

• Anjana Krishna, SingHealth Communications, anjana.krishna.kumar@singhealth.com.sg.

UC Davis Health media contact:

• Liam Connolly, UC Davis Communications, lhconnolly@ucdavis.edu.

University Health Network media contact: 

• Daniel Girard, UNH Public Affairs, Daniel.girard@uhn.ca.

The post Mayo Clinic Platform expands global footprint of its distributed data network   appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A recent Mayo Clinic study suggests that active workstations incorporating a walking pad, bike, stepper and/or standing desk are successful strategies for reducing sedentary time and improving mental cognition at work without reducing job performance. Extended sedentary behavior, whether at work or home, increases a person's risk of preventable chronic diseases.

"Our findings suggest that it is feasible to blend movement with office work that previously would have been done during long periods of sitting. Active workstations may offer a way to potentially improve cognitive performance and overall health, simply by moving at work," says Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, M.D., a preventive cardiologist at Mayo Clinic and senior author of the study.

The research involved 44 participants in a randomized clinical trial where four office settings were evaluated over four consecutive days at Mayo Clinic's Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center. Study findings are published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The settings included a stationary or sitting station on the first day, followed by three active workstations (standing, walking or using a stepper) in a randomized order. Researchers analyzed participants' neurocognitive function based on 11 assessments that evaluated reasoning, short-term memory and concentration. Fine motor skills were assessed through an online typing speed test and other tests.  

When participants used the active workstations, their brain function either improved or stayed the same, and their typing speed slowed down only a bit. However, the accuracy of their typing was not affected. The study revealed improved reasoning scores when standing, stepping and walking as compared with sitting. 

"Being sedentary is the new smoking when it comes to your cardiovascular health, and office workers may spend a large part of their eight-hour workday sitting at a computer screen and keyboard. These findings indicate that there are more ways to do that work while remaining productive and mentally sharp. We would do well to consider an active workstation in the prescription for prevention and treatment of conditions like obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes," says Dr. Lopez-Jimenez.

Journalists: Broadcast-quality video b-roll of active workstations can be found in the downloads at the end of the post. Please courtesy: "Mayo Clinic News Network."

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Terri Malloy, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic study finds active workstations may improve cognitive performance appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A new multicenter, international study suggests that people who have early-stage triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and high levels of immune cells within their tumors may have a lower risk of recurrence and better survival rates even when not treated with chemotherapy. The study was published today in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA).

TNBC is a breast cancer subtype that does not respond to drugs that target the estrogen receptor or the HER2 protein. It grows rapidly, is more likely to spread beyond the breast before diagnosis and is more likely to recur than other breast cancers. TNBC represents about 15% of all breast cancers and is more common in younger people and in women of African American, Hispanic and Indian descent. Immune cells, also known as tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs, are naturally existing immune system cells that can move from the bloodstream into a tumor and can recognize and destroy cancer cells.

"This is an important finding because it highlights that the abundance of TILs in breast tissue is a prognostic biomarker in people with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer, even when chemotherapy is not administered," says Roberto Leon-Ferre, M.D., a breast medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center and first author of the study. "The study's findings may inspire future clinical trials to explore whether patients with a favorable prognosis (high TILs) can avoid intensive chemotherapy regimens."

"This meta-analysis confirms robustly the prognostic value of TILs that we have previously reported in TNBC patients treated with chemotherapy and expands it to patients treated without chemotherapy," says Sarah Flora Jonas, Ph.D., a statistician at Gustave Roussy and co-first author of the study. "Future studies may allow the use of this biomarker along with standard clinicopathological factors to inform treatment decisions in TNBC patients."

"Of interest, the first report suggesting that an increased number of immune cells being associated with better prognosis in breast cancer patients was described by doctors at Mayo Clinic more than 100 years ago," says Roberto Salgado, M.D., co-chair of the International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group; co-lead of the study; and pathologist from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia, and ZAS Hospitals, Antwerp, Belgium. "It took a global effort and a century later to reexamine this biomarker and bring it closer to application in patient care."

"TILs are not currently measured or reported in the routine examination of tissue samples of breast cancer," says co-senior author, Matthew Goetz, M.D., a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Erivan K. Haub Family Professor of Cancer Research Honoring Richard F. Emslander, M.D. "While prior studies have focused on measuring TILs in people treated with chemotherapy, this is the largest study to comprehensively demonstrate that the presence of TILs influences the natural behavior of breast cancer in people who have surgery and/or radiation with no additional medical treatment."

For this study, Mayo Clinic and Gustave Roussy researchers, in collaboration with the International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group, led 11 additional groups to collect data on 1,966 participants with early-stage TNBC who only underwent surgery with or without radiation therapy but did not receive chemotherapy. The participants had been followed for a median of 18 years. The results showed that higher levels of TILs in breast cancer tissue were associated with lower recurrence rates among participants with early-stage TNBC.

"Five years after surgery, 95% of participants with small tumors, stage 1 TNBC, and whose tumors had high TILs were alive, compared to 82% of patients whose tumors had low TILs. Importantly, the breast cancer recurrence rate was significantly lower among patients whose tumors had high TILs," says co-senior author, Stefan Michiels, Ph.D., head of Oncostat team, Gustave Roussy, Inserm U1018, University Paris-Saclay. "With nearly 2,000 participants involved in the study, we have now assembled the largest international cohort across three continents of people with TNBC in which the primary treatment was surgery without chemotherapy."

"The results of this study could lead to a recommendation to include TILs in the pathology reports of early-stage TNBC worldwide, as it has the potential to inform clinicians and patients when they discuss treatment options," says Dr. Salgado.

Furthermore, this biomarker would only require a visual evaluation by a pathologist looking through a microscope, meaning there are no additional costs associated with identifying the presence of immune cells. This could be particularly beneficial to regions with limited resources, adds Dr. Leon-Ferre.

Most people with early-stage TNBC undergo chemotherapy either before or after surgery, including people with stage 1 breast cancer. Most people receive multiple chemotherapy drugs in combination, which can cause significant side effects. Currently, the main factors taken into consideration to determine the course of chemotherapy treatment for each person are the tumor size and the presence of lymph node metastases. However, the authors identified that the number of TILs further influences the risk of future recurrence.

The researchers plan to evaluate TILs as biomarkers in prospective clinical trials evaluating chemotherapy selection based on TIL levels. Ongoing efforts to conduct additional research with other potential biomarkers are underway.

For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding, see the full paper here.  

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About Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center
Designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center is defining new boundaries in possibility, focusing on patient-centered care, developing novel treatments, training future generations of cancer experts and bringing cancer research to communities. At Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, a culture of innovation and collaboration is driving research breakthroughs that are changing approaches to cancer prevention, screening and treatment, and improving the lives of cancer survivors.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About Gustave Roussy
Ranked as the leading French and European Cancer Centre and fourth in the world, Gustave Roussy is a centre with comprehensive expertise and is devoted entirely to patients suffering with cancer. The Institute is a founding member of the Paris Saclay Cancer Cluster. It is a source of diagnostic and therapeutic advances. It caters for almost 50,000 patients per year and its approach is one that integrates research, patient care and teaching. It is specialized in the treatment of rare cancers and complex tumors and it treats all cancers in patients of any age. Its care is personalized and combines the most advanced medical methods with an appreciation of the patient’s human requirements. In addition to the quality of treatment offered, the physical, psychological and social aspects of the patient’s life are respected. 4,100 professionals work on its two campuses: Villejuif and Chevilly-Larue. Gustave Roussy brings together the skills, which are essential for the highest quality research in oncology: 40% of patients treated are included in clinical studies. For further information: www.gustaveroussy.fr/en, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram

Media contact:

• Kelley Luckstein, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post New study finds triple-negative breast cancer tumors with an increase in immune cells have lower risk of recurrence after surgery appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Mayo Clinic and Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation announced today a research collaboration centered on improving organ transplant outcomes.

Beginning in April, Mayo Clinic biomedical researchers and Terasaki Institute scientists will work together on two core areas: real-time monitoring of donated organ health from procurement to transplant surgery and developing predictive technologies to determine which transplant recipients have a higher likelihood of rejection. That will be done by creating prognostic signatures and assays for antibody-mediated rejection of organ transplant. These initial projects are expected to take 24 to 30 months to complete.

"As the largest organ transplant provider in the United States, Mayo Clinic is deeply invested in finding innovative solutions to improve transplant care for patients. That is why we are so excited about this new collaboration with the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation," says Burcin Taner, M.D., chair of the Transplant Center at Mayo Clinic in Florida and chair of Mayo Clinic Transplant Specialty Council. "Bringing these two institutions together with the same goal of improving transplant outcomes for patients will positively affect many lives."

"We are also very excited about our collaboration with Mayo Clinic," says Ali Khademhosseini, Ph.D., director and CEO of the Terasaki Institute of Biomedical Innovation. "We’re looking forward to conducting impactful research to enhance the quality of life for transplant patients, and we are happy to build upon the work of Dr. Paul I. Terasaki, a pioneer in the field of organ transplantation, who founded the original Terasaki Institute." 

More than 103,000 people in the U.S. are on the waiting list for an organ transplant. Every eight minutes, another person is added to the transplant waiting list.

This latest collaboration is part of Mayo Clinic's Transforming Transplant initiative, which has the bold goal of providing organ transplants for everyone who needs one. The initiative was created as a collaboration between Mayo Clinic's Transplantation programs and Mayo Clinic's Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics. Its goals include:

• Restoring donated organs by optimizing them for best outcomes and decreasing discard rates.
• Preventing organ failure in patients who have received organ transplants.
• Preventing organ failure and the need for a transplant through early diagnosis of organ dysfunction.
• Engineering new organs, subsequently eliminating the uncertainty of organ donation and long waits.

Mayo Clinic Transplant Center, with locations in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota, has performed more than 32,000 organ transplants since 1963.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation
The Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation is accelerating the pace of translational research by supporting the world's leading scientists with an open, entrepreneurial environment for bioengineering new materials, biological models and advanced technologies to address critical challenges to the health of the planet and its people. The Institute's worldwide collaborations with academic, clinical and entrepreneurial partners provide a rich foundation for translating innovations to the real world.

Media contacts:

• Heather Carlson Kehren, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu
• Stewart Han, Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation, shan@terasaki.org

The post Mayo Clinic, Terasaki Institute launch collaboration for transplant innovation appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic scientists have developed an immunotherapy strategy that potentially lays the groundwork for treating a spectrum of autoimmune diseases. 

The new technique, detailed in a preclinical study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, involves combining chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) with mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC), resulting in engineered stem cells known as CAR-MSCs. 

“The pioneering approach shows potential in targeting inflammatory disease sites more precisely and improving immunosuppression and healing outcomes,” says Saad Kenderian, M.B., Ch.B., a principal investigator and hematologist at Mayo Clinic. “We’re planning to study interventions that minimize the need for long-term medications for autoimmune diseases.”

The combination approach centers on mesenchymal stromal cells, which are found in various tissues in the body, including bone marrow, fat tissue and umbilical cord blood. These cells have the unique ability to transform into several specific types of cells such as bone cells, cartilage cells and fat cells. 

Mesenchymal stromal cells are known for calming down the immune system, controlling inflammation and promoting immune tolerance to prevent the body's own tissues from being attacked.

Within this CAR-MSCs framework, mesenchymal stromal cells are engineered with chimeric antigen receptors, which are molecular tools engineered to recognize specific disease-related markers.

Chimeric antigen receptors have three crucial functions: 1) Target and attach to specific markers on diseased cells. 2) Act as an anchor to ensure the chimeric antigen receptors stay connected to the target. 3) Initiate signaling to activate a robust immune response.

While mesenchymal stromal cells have been extensively studied in isolation in autoimmune contexts, their efficacy has fallen short. The combined CAR-MSC therapeutic strategy tackles two key challenges: Mesenchymal stromal cells by themselves have difficulty calming down the strong immune reactions in autoimmune conditions, and they struggle to travel to and attach to the areas of inflammation.

Engineering mesenchymal stromal cells with chimeric antigen receptors shows potential in enhancing their ability to target specific cells or markers and improve their therapeutic impact.

How CAR-MSCs target inflammation

For the study, Dr. Kenderian and his team developed CAR-MSCs to specifically target a protein linked to a condition called graft-versus-host disease, as well as inflammatory bowel diseases, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Graft-versus-host disease occurs when cells from a donor attack the tissues of the person receiving them, typically following a bone marrow or stem cell transplant.

In mouse models, upon stimulation by the specific protein they were designed to target, CAR-MSCs showed improved ability to go to the inflamed area, have better control of inflammation and improve outcomes and survival. This was mediated by a change in the genetic signature of CAR-MSCs, the proteins they released and receptor expression.

Dr. Kenderian emphasizes that these preliminary findings set the stage for future applications of this technology, paving the way to enhance the therapy's versatility to address various diseases across the autoimmune spectrum.

This study builds upon a series of previously published studies on CAR-T therapy led by Dr. Kenderian and his collaborators at Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine, Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics and the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Kenderian is also investigating ways to make CAR-T cell therapy more accessible to patients through on-site biomanufacturing at Mayo Clinic's campuses in Rochester, Minnesota and Jacksonville, Florida.

Review the study for a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding.

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About Mayo Clinic  
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and to providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.   

Media contact:   

• Susan Murphy, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu   

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — A Mayo Clinic study shows stem cells derived from patients' own fat are safe and may improve sensation and movement after traumatic spinal cord injuries. The findings from the phase 1 clinical trial appear in Nature Communications. The results of this early research offer insights on the potential of cell therapy for people living with spinal cord injuries and paralysis for whom options to improve function are extremely limited.

In the study of 10 adults, the research team noted seven participants demonstrated improvements based on the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale. Improvements included increased sensation when tested with pinprick and light touch, increased strength in muscle motor groups, and recovery of voluntary anal contraction, which aids in bowel function. The scale has five levels, ranging from complete loss of function to normal function. The seven participants who improved each moved up at least one level on the ASIA scale. Three patients in the study had no response, meaning they did not improve but did not get worse.

"This study documents the safety and potential benefit of stem cells and regenerative medicine," says Mohamad Bydon, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon and first author of the study. "Spinal cord injury is a complex condition. Future research may show whether stem cells in combination with other therapies could be part of a new paradigm of treatment to improve outcomes for patients."

No serious adverse events were reported after stem cell treatment. The most commonly reported side effects were headache and musculoskeletal pain that resolved with over-the-counter treatment.

In addition to evaluating safety, this phase 1 clinical trial had a secondary outcome of assessing changes in motor and sensory function. The authors note that motor and sensory results are to be interpreted with caution given limits of phase 1 trials. Additional research is underway among a larger group of participants to further assess risks and benefits.

The full data on the 10 patients follows a 2019 case report that highlighted the experience of the first study participant who demonstrated significant improvement in motor and sensory function.

Watch: Dr. Mohamad Bydon discusses improvements in research study

Journalists: Broadcast-quality sound bites are available in the downloads at the end of the post. Please courtesy: "Mayo Clinic News Network." Name super/CG: Mohamad Bydon, M.D./Neurosurgery/Mayo Clinic.

Stem cells' mechanism of action not fully understood

In the multidisciplinary clinical trial, participants had spinal cord injuries from motor vehicle accidents, falls and other causes. Six had neck injuries; four had back injuries. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 65.

Participants' stem cells were collected by taking a small amount of fat from a 1- to 2-inch incision in the abdomen or thigh. Over four weeks, the cells were expanded in the laboratory to 100 million cells and then injected into the patients' lumbar spine in the lower back. Over two years, each study participant was evaluated at Mayo Clinic 10 times.

Although it is understood that stem cells move toward areas of inflammation — in this case the location of the spinal cord injury — the cells' mechanism of interacting with the spinal cord is not fully understood, Dr. Bydon says. As part of the study, researchers analyzed changes in participants' MRIs and cerebrospinal fluid as well as in responses to pain, pressure and other sensation. The investigators are looking for clues to identify injury processes at a cellular level and avenues for potential regeneration and healing.

The spinal cord has limited ability to repair its cells or make new ones. Patients typically experience most of their recovery in the first six to 12 months after injuries occur. Improvement generally stops 12 to 24 months after injury. In the study, one patient with a cervical spine injury of the neck received stem cells 22 months after injury and improved one level on the ASIA scale after treatment.

Two of three patients with complete injuries of the thoracic spine — meaning they had no feeling or movement below their injury between the base of the neck and mid-back — moved up two ASIA levels after treatment. Each regained some sensation and some control of movement below the level of injury. Based on researchers' understanding of traumatic thoracic spinal cord injury, only 5% of people with a complete injury would be expected to regain any feeling or movement.

"In spinal cord injury, even a mild improvement can make a significant difference in that patient's quality of life," Dr. Bydon says.

Research continues into stem cells for spinal cord injuries

Stem cells are used mainly in research in the U.S., and fat-derived stem cell treatment for spinal cord injury is considered experimental by the Food and Drug Administration.

Between 250,000 and 500,000 people worldwide suffer a spinal cord injury each year, according to the World Health Organization.

An important next step is assessing the effectiveness of stem cell therapies and subsets of patients who would most benefit, Dr. Bydon says. Research is continuing with a larger, controlled trial that randomly assigns patients to receive either the stem cell treatment or a placebo without stem cells.

"For years, treatment of spinal cord injury has been limited to supportive care, more specifically stabilization surgery and physical therapy," Dr. Bydon says. "Many historical textbooks state that this condition does not improve. In recent years, we have seen findings from the medical and scientific community that challenge prior assumptions. This research is a step forward toward the ultimate goal of improving treatments for patients."

Dr. Bydon is the Charles B. and Ann L. Johnson Professor of Neurosurgery. This research was made possible with support from Leonard A. Lauder, C and A Johnson Family Foundation, The Park Foundation, Sanger Family Foundation, Eileen R.B. and Steve D. Scheel, Schultz Family Foundation, and other generous Mayo Clinic benefactors. The research is funded in part by a Mayo Clinic Transform the Practice grant.

Review the study for a complete list of authors and funding.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Susan Barber Lindquist, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic Platform_Accelerate celebrated the graduation of its fourth cohort of health tech startups, including nine innovative businesses from around the world. During the graduation event, held March 28 in Eagan, Minnesota, each company presented progress and outcomes from the 20-week accelerator program, providing a glimpse into the future of medicine.

"It's with immense pride that we celebrate the nine graduate companies from our latest cohort. Their remarkable dedication, resilience and achievements have truly set a new standard. We are excited to keep championing their journey as they advance patient care globally," says Jamie Sundsbak, senior manager of the Accelerate program.

Using Mayo Clinic Platform's global, de-identified data network, Mayo Clinic Platform_Accelerate helps startups focus on validation and clinical readiness of their artificial intelligence-driven solutions in line with healthcare industry standards. The program provides participants access to Mayo Clinic experts in regulatory, clinical, technology and business domains. As part of this in-kind investment, Mayo Clinic Platform has an equity position in the companies.

Learn more about the members of Cohort 4:

• AI Nexus is on a mission to make healthcare more accessible to people regardless of economic status, geographic location, gender or race. Its technology, miaVitals, is a novel and proprietary AI-based platform that helps users take control of their health using just a smartphone. Through machine learning pattern recognition with insights created by cognitive AI that encapsulates the expertise of dozens of medical doctors, miaVitals is capable of detecting early warning signs at the onset of numerous chronic diseases and life-threatening conditions, such as respiratory disorders, stroke and cardiac arrhythmia.
• Alvee helps payers and providers to reduce health disparities with AI-driven insights and autonomous care navigation. Its platform proactively identifies barriers to care, lays out actionable pathways for social determinants of health and helps to close the loop on resource referrals. Alvee focuses on enhanced health outcomes, regulatory compliance and cost efficiency.
• ArtiMed is developing AI-based risk stratification software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools. These tools are designed to assist health plans and insurers to manage the challenges presented by long Covid and other post-Covid conditions within their populations. Additionally, they enable pharmaceutical companies in identifying individuals who might benefit from their drugs for these conditions. ArtiMed has recently expanded its portfolio to broaden its scope to include risk stratification for other post-Covid issues such as major cardiovascular conditions, including myocardial infarction or stroke, associated with a previous Covid infection.
• C the Signs is focused on giving every patient their best chance at surviving cancer by detecting cancer at the earliest, most curable stage. In under 30 seconds, C the Signs has the ability to rapidly identify which cancers a patient is at risk, and recommend the most appropriate test or specialist to diagnose their cancer.
• DeepMetrics operates as an AI-driven ICU automation platform company. The company has developed an AI model for automatically adjusting ventilator settings, which has been tested on approximately 2,000 ICU patients over roughly 4,000 ICU days. Their AI demonstrates the capability to control ventilators at the level of intensivist, offering verifiable guarantee of optimality. Currently, they are in the process of submitting their findings to a top journal and pursuing a U.S. patent. DeepMetrics is actively working toward securing a 510(k) clearance from the Food and Drug Administration while simultaneously raising $5 million in seed/pre-series A funding.
• Genomate Health Inc. develops AI-powered computational tools for personalized medicine. Its main focus is assisting physicians in making optimal personalized treatment decisions for each patient based on the complex molecular characteristics of human diseases. Its flagship product, Genomate MTC (molecular treatment calculator), is the first computational AI solution clinically proven to improve personalized n-of-1 treatment decisions in precision oncology.
• ISHI Health specializes in heart failure care with its innovative virtual care solutions. Its expertise in heart failure, state-of-the-art cardiac sensor technology and disease profiling enable ISHI Health to offer scalable virtual care. Collaborating closely with physicians, they craft personalized treatment plans, encompassing medication adjustments, continuous monitoring and easing the care burden. ISHI Health provides patients with contextual feedback, enhancing their journey and ensuring lasting engagement.
• LUMINARE's mission is to make healthcare more efficient using its expertise in healthcare and technology to eliminate sepsis deaths. LUMINARE's software has been shown to accelerate identification of infections and speed up implementation of sepsis protocols in care settings. The ensuing fast treatment decreases ICU admissions, ICU lengths of stay and ventilator utilization, and improves sepsis survival. LUMINARE is adding deep-learning AI through this collaboration to allow hospitals to confirm sepsis faster and thereby treat faster using innovative workflow software to eliminate alert-fatigue that has plagued AI-based alarms.
• PulseAI is a medical technology company that builds AI-enabled software products designed to improve the accuracy, efficiency and scalability of cardiac diagnostics. Through its proprietary database of more than 1 million patients, PulseAI has created a cloud-based digital platform allowing for easy device integration and scalable deployment of deep learning AI-ECG algorithms.

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About Mayo Clinic Platform
Founded on Mayo Clinic's dedication to patient-centered care, Mayo Clinic Platform enables new knowledge, new solutions and new technologies through collaborations with health technology innovators to create a healthier world. To learn more, visit Mayo Clinic Platform at www.mayoclinicplatform.org.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Terri Malloy, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu
  
  

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Mayo Clinic research finds a connection between Social Network Index score and AI-determined biological age

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A new study from Mayo Clinic finds that socially isolated people are more likely to show signs of being biologically older than their age and more likely to die from a variety of causes. The research, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Advances, suggests that social connection plays an important role in overall physical health and longevity, and it should be addressed as a necessary part of the social determinants of health.

To investigate the role of social contact in biological aging, the researchers compared the Social Network Index and AI-enabled electrocardiogram (AI-ECG)-predicted age gaps of over 280,000 adults who received outpatient care between June 2019 and March 2022. Eligible participants completed a questionnaire on the social determinants of health and had AI-ECG records independent of the study on file within one year.

An AI-ECG model developed at Mayo Clinic was used to estimate biological age, which was then compared to chronological age. Previous research shows that the AI-ECG age prediction represents the heart's biological age. A positive age gap indicates accelerated biological aging, while a negative value suggests slower biological aging. 

Researchers assessed social isolation using the Social Network Index, which asks six distinct multiple-choice questions related to these areas of social interaction:

• Belonging to any social club or organization.
• Frequency of participating in social activities per year.
• Frequency of talking on the telephone with family and friends per week.
• Frequency of attending church or religious services per year.
• Frequency of getting together with friends or family in person per week.
• Marital status or living with a partner.

Each question response was given a score of 0 or 1, and the total score tallies ranged from 0 to 4, representing varying degrees of social isolation.

Participants with a higher Social Network Index score — indicating a better social network — had a smaller AI-ECG age gap, and that held true across all gender and age groups. Social network status significantly influenced mortality risk. During the two-year follow-up period, approximately 5% of the participants died. Those who had low social index scores less than or equal to 1 had the highest risk of death compared to other groups.

While the participants were 86.3% non-Hispanic white, the study data point to existing health disparities. Non-white participants had higher average age gaps than their white counterparts, especially those with lower Social Network Index scores.

"This study highlights the critical interplay between social isolation, health and aging," says Amir Lerman, M.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic and senior author of the paper. "Social isolation combined with demographic and medical conditions appears to be a significant risk factor for accelerated aging. But we also know that people can change their behavior — have more social interaction, exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, stop smoking, get adequate sleep, etc. Making and sustaining these changes may go a long way toward improving overall health."

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Terri Malloy, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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