Research - August 2015 Archives

ROCHESTER Minn. — A team of Mayo Clinic Cancer Center scientists has been awarded a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant in multiple myeloma from the National Cancer Institute. The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center is one of only three cancer centers to receive a SPORE grant for multiple myeloma cancer research. “With project leaders from Mayo campuses in Arizona, Rochester and Florida, our SPORE team will study the genetic basis for myeloma, develop novel viral and immunologic therapies, and optimize the use of existing therapies with a goal of controlling and eventually curing this deadly disease,” says Leif Bergsagel, M.D., lead investigator. “Starting from the pioneering work of Robert Kyle, M.D., over the last half-century, the myeloma group at Mayo Clinic is one of the strongest in the world.” Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Bergsagel are available in the downloads. MEDIA CONTACT: Joe Dangor, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XGjq_d96CI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGYTLOGZ40U   JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Cancer researchers dream of the day they can force tumor cells to morph back to the normal cells they once were. Now, researchers on Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus have discovered a way to potentially reprogram cancer cells back to normalcy. The finding, published in Nature Cell Biology, represents “an unexpected new biology that provides the code, the software for turning off cancer,” says the study’s senior investigator, Panos Anastasiadis, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Cancer Biology on Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus. Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Anastasiadis are available in the downloads. MEDIA CONTACT: Kevin Punsky, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 904-953-0746, punsky.kevin@mayo.edu

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Two collaborative networks led by Mayo Clinic were approved for three-year funding awards by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), becoming part of PCORnet, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network. PCORnet is a large collaborative initiative designed to link researchers, patient communities, clinicians and health systems in productive research partnerships that leverage the power of large volumes of health data maintained by the partner networks. PCORnet will enable the nation to conduct clinical research more quickly and less expensively, and ensure that research focuses on the questions and outcomes that matter most to patients and those who care for them. PCORnet consists of two types of networks working toward that combined goal:  clinical data research networks and patient powered research networks. Mayo is involved with both types of networks and received awards for the following: Patient-Centered Network of Learning Health Systems (LHSNet), which includes partners across six states and nine academic medical centers, health care systems, public health departments, and private health plans touching approximately 10 million individual lives, including patients in underserved and rural areas. LHSNet received more than $8.6 million for the three year project period. National Alzheimer's and Dementia Patient and Caregiver-Powered Research Network (AD PCPRN), which received more than $1.53 million, is co-led by USAgainstAlzheimer’s (USA2), the University of California, San Francisco’s, Brain Health Registry and Mayo Clinic. MEDIA CONTACTS: Elizabeth Zimmermann Young or Colette Gallagher, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu