Research - September 2014 Archives

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic announced today that it is part of a team of research centers chosen by Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to evaluate the effectiveness of different treatment strategies for women with uterine fibroids. AHRQ has awarded the team a $3.95 million, first-year grant for the project, called Comparing Options for Management: Patient-Centered Results for Uterine Fibroids (COMPARE-UF). Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) will serve as the research and data coordinating center for the teams. “We are very excited to have funding to provide the key clinical evidence that all women and their physicians need to make informed choices about fibroid treatments,” says Elizabeth Stewart, M.D., chair of Reproductive Endocrinology at Mayo Clinic and the clinical leader of the study.

ASCO immediate past president and Breast Cancer Research Foundation Scientific Committee Chair to offer keynote address at Individualizing Medicine 2014: From Promise to Practice ROCHESTER, Minn. ― Mayo Clinic announced today that Clifford Hudis, M.D., immediate past president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), will deliver the keynote address at Individualizing Medicine 2014: From Promise to Practice. Individualizing Medicine 2014 is scheduled for Oct. 6–8, with optional workshops and sessions before and after the conference. Presentations will cover a wide range of topics, including cardiovascular disease, the role of genomics in the pharmacy, insurance and reimbursement issues, the use of deep sequencing for predictive medicine, and more. A complete schedule and list of speakers is available on the conference website. Focused concurrent sessions are also available. MEDIA CONTACT: Sam Smith, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005,newsbureau@mayo.edu Journalists: Lab b-roll and sound bites with Richard Weinshilboum, M.D., co-director, Individualizing Medicine Conference, are available in the downloads.

Startup company to offer next-generation sequencing-based pharmacogenomics interpretation ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic and venture catalyst Invenshure announce the launch of Oneome, a genomics interpretation company that exports Mayo’s extensive pharmacogenomics knowledge in the form of concise, actionable reports to help providers anywhere deliver the right medication at the right time. Oneome reports will focus on providing pharmacogenomically driven guidance for medications with high levels of evidence in medical literature. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Mayo’s collaboration with Oneome is led by the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine. “Our own genetic makeup can have a significant impact on how our bodies process and use prescription medication, which in turn affects whether or not a drug works the way our doctor intended,” says Oneome co-founder John Logan Black, M.D., a Mayo Clinic physician and co-director of the Personalized Genomics Laboratory in Mayo's Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. “We have developed sophisticated decision algorithms that can help providers use genomic testing to get their prescriptions right the first time.”

Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and the American Association for Cancer Research host Twitter Chat   Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and the American Association for ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Researchers at Jacksonville’s campus of Mayo Clinic have discovered a defect in a key cell-signaling pathway they say contributes to both overproduction of toxic protein in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients as well as loss of communication between neurons — both significant contributors to this type of dementia. Their study, in the online issue of Neuron, offers the potential that targeting this specific defect with drugs “may rejuvenate or rescue this pathway,” says the study’s lead investigator, Guojun Bu, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla. “This defect is likely not the sole contributor to development of Alzheimer’s disease, but our findings suggest it is very important, and could be therapeutically targeted to possibly prevent Alzheimer’s or treat early disease,” he says.

JACKSONVILLE, Flórida, — Os médicos anteveem um futuro em que os dados do genoma de pacientes são bastante usados para gerir sua saúde — mas os especialistas questionam a precisão e a confiabilidade dessas análises. Agora, estudo realizado por 150 pesquisadores, em 12 países, verifica que há consistência e similares reais em técnicas e laboratórios de sequenciamento genômico de RNA, bem como em maneiras de corrigir pequenas variações existentes, para estabelecer um novo alto padrão. Os resultados do estudo foram publicados pelo periódico Nature Biotechnology, em três artigos sobre a pesquisa. “Os resultados devem oferecer uma certeza a pacientes, médicos e à comunidade de pesquisa de que o sequenciamento genômico é preciso”, diz o professor de biologia do câncer E. Aubrey Thompson, da Clínica Mayo da Flórida, uma das três instituições de saúde que lideraram o estudo. Thompson é um dos coautores do estudo e integrante da liderança do projeto.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Physicians envision a future in which genomic data from patients is heavily used to manage care — but experts have questioned the accuracy and reliability of these analyses. Now, a study by 150 researchers in 12 countries finds real strength and agreement across RNA genomic sequencing techniques and laboratories — as well as ways to improve what little variability exists to set a new high standard. The results of the study were published in Nature Biotechnology in three separate research articles. These results should provide assurance to patients, clinicians and the research community that genomic sequencing is accurate, says E. Aubrey Thompson, Ph.D., a professor of cancer biology at Mayo Clinic in Florida, one of three institutions that led the study. Dr. Thompson is a study co-author and member of the project leadership.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA_8jbqIIiw&feature=youtu.be&hd=1 Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Rocca are in the downloads. ROCHESTER, Minn. — A collaborative study by researchers from Mayo Clinic, Olmsted Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University has measured multimorbidity — multiple diseases or medical conditions co-occurring in a single patient — and has determined which combinations of medical conditions are more prevalent by age, sex, and race/ethnicity in a geographically-defined Midwestern population. Investigators say that their findings, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, are valuable in light of the aging population, the need to plan and prioritize health care interventions, and have broad implications for clinical research. Using a list of 20 medical conditions developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the research team accessed records for over 138,000 persons who lived in Olmsted County, Minnesota, during 2010 via the Rochester Epidemiology Project. They concluded that multimorbidity is fairly common in the general population; it increases steeply with older age; has different combinations in men and women; and varies by race/ethnicity. MEDIA CONTACT: Robert Nellis, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu

Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation Collaborates with Delos® to open first of its kind lab devoted to health and wellness in the built environment ROCHESTER, Minn. — Delos®, the Pioneer of Wellness Real Estate™, and the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation today announced their agreement to design, build and operate the newly formed WELL Living Lab — a multidisciplinary lab that will be uniquely focused on the interaction between health, wellness and the built environment. Set to debut in April 2015 adjacent to Mayo Clinic’s Rochester campus in downtown Rochester, the WELL Living Lab will be the first lab exclusively committed to research, development and testing of both new and existing innovations designed to improve the health and well-being of individuals as they live and work within built environments. An open-innovation ecosystem for healthy living, the WELL Living Lab will simulate realistic living and working environments, including homes, offices, schools, communities and hotels in order to test, monitor and identify the efficacy of wellness-based interventions. The lab will incorporate state-of-the-art technology and unique design elements that will create a dynamic, versatile and highly adaptable environment, allowing for a wide range of simulated real-world conditions. Delos® and Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation will co-govern the lab, which will be staffed by Mayo Clinic personnel, along with members of the Delos® team. MEDIA CONTACTS: Duska Anastasijevic, Mayo Clinic, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu Callie Shumaker, Delos, 646-654-3438, cshumaker@nikecomm.com