Growing mini-organs to find new treatments for complex disease

Mayo Clinic investigators are growing three-dimensional human intestines in a dish to track disease and find new cures for complex conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease. These mini-organs function like human intestines, with the ability to process metabolites that convert food into energy on a cellular level and secrete mucus that protects against bacteria. These 3D mini-intestines in a dish, known as "organoids," provide a unique platform for studying the intricacies of the human gut.

"We think this has the potential to revolutionize the way we approach disease research. We hope to save time and resources and avoid the development of therapies that fail upon translation into patients," says Charles Howe, Ph.D., who leads the Translational Neuroimmunology Lab. "Understanding which treatments show potential for success in human organoids could dramatically accelerate the rate of new therapies for patients with unmet needs."

Brain stimulation shows promise in treating drug addiction

Physicians use neurostimulation to treat a variety of human disorders, including Parkinson's disease, tremor, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome. A Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon and his colleagues believe one form of that treatment, called deep brain stimulation (DBS), is poised to solve one of the most significant public health challenges: drug addiction.

"Drug addiction is a huge, unmet medical need," says Kendall Lee, M.D., Ph.D., who has published nearly 100 journal articles on DBS along with his colleagues. Key to treating it, he says, is cutting off the pleasurable "high" that comes with the addiction — which DBS potentially can do.

A new class of AI aims to improve cancer research and treatments

Mayo Clinic researchers have invented a new class of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms called hypothesis-driven AI, which is a significant departure from traditional AI models that learn solely from data. The researchers note that this emerging class of AI offers an innovative way to use massive datasets to help discover the complex causes of diseases, such as cancer, and improve treatment strategies.

"This fosters a new era in designing targeted and informed AI algorithms to solve scientific questions, better understand diseases and guide individualized medicine," says co-inventor Hu Li, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic systems biology and AI researcher. "It has the potential to uncover insights missed by conventional AI."

What's lurking in your body? Mayo probes health risks of tiny plastic particles

Similar to natural elements like iron and copper, people can ingest, absorb, or even inhale microplastics and nanoplastics and their chemical additives. A landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine links microplastics and nanoplastics found in plaques of human blood vessels to a potential increased risk of heart attack, stroke or death.

"Plastics have made our lives more convenient and spurred many medical advances, but we must understand their impact on human health for the years to come," says Konstantinos Lazaridis, M.D., the Carlson and Nelson Endowed Executive Director for Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine.

Mayo Clinic researchers' new tool links Alzheimer's disease types to rate of cognitive decline

Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a series of brain changes characterized by unique clinical features and immune cell behaviors using a new corticolimbic index tool for Alzheimer's disease, a leading cause of dementia. The tool categorizes Alzheimer's disease cases into three subtypes according to the location of brain changes and continues the team's prior work, demonstrating how these changes affect people differently. Uncovering the microscopic pathology of the disease can help researchers pinpoint biomarkers that may affect future treatments and patient care.

"Our team found striking demographic and clinical differences among sex, age at symptomatic onset and rate of cognitive decline," says Melissa Murray, Ph.D., a translational neuropathologist at Mayo Clinic.

Mayo scientists explore swabs for early endometrial, ovarian cancer detection

Early detection improves treatment outcomes for endometrial and ovarian cancers, yet far too often, women are diagnosed when in advanced stages of these diseases. Unlike many other cancers, there are no standard screenings for early detection of endometrial and ovarian cancers. Mayo Clinic researchers have uncovered specific microbial signatures linked to endometrial and ovarian cancers, and they are working toward developing innovative home swab tests for women to assess their susceptibility.

"This research not only brings us closer to understanding the microbial dynamics in cancer, but also holds the potential to transform early detection and treatment strategies to positively impact women's health globally," says Marina Walther-Antonio, Ph.D., an assistant professor of surgery leading this research.

Reversing racism's toll on heart health

People who experience chronic exposure to racism may be affected by factors such as intergenerational trauma, reduced access to healthcare, differential treatment in healthcare settings and psychological distress. These negatively affect heart health and can have a cumulative effect throughout a person's life. Researchers from Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota published a paper which provides a new framework describing how racism affects heart health among people of color in Minnesota. The researchers are focused on reversing these disparities.

"This framework will help scientists explore and measure how chronic exposure to racism, not race, influences health outcomes," says Sean Phelan, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic health services researcher. "This will help enable researchers to design interventions that address the root causes of these disparities and improve heart health for people of color everywhere."

Teamwork and research play a key role in Mayo Clinic's first larynx transplant

A team of six surgeons and 20 support staff combined expertise from the Department of Otolaryngology and the Department of Transplantation in an extraordinary 21-hour operation at Mayo Clinic. The team transplanted a donor larynx to a 59-year-old patient with cancer whose damaged larynx hampered his ability to talk, swallow and breathe. This groundbreaking surgery was only the third larynx transplant in the U.S., and the world's first known successful total larynx transplant performed in a patient with an active cancer as part of a clinical trial.

"All transplants are complex, but there are more tissue types and moving parts with laryngeal transplantation than other transplants," says David Lott, M.D., lead surgeon. "Mayo Clinic's team science approach made it possible for us to offer this type of transplant on a scale that was previously unattainable."

Space: A new frontier for exploring stem cell therapy

Two Mayo Clinic researchers say that stem cells grown in microgravity aboard the International Space Station have unique qualities that could one day help accelerate new biotherapies and heal complex disease. The research analysis by Abba Zubair, M.D., Ph.D., a laboratory medicine expert and medical director for the Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics at Mayo Clinic in Florida, and Fay Abdul Ghani, Mayo Clinic research technologist, finds microgravity can strengthen the regenerative potential of cells. 

"Studying stem cells in space has uncovered cell mechanisms that would otherwise be undetected or unknown within the presence of normal gravity," says Dr. Zubair. "That discovery indicates a broader scientific value to this research, including potential clinical applications."

Mayo Clinic’s largest-ever exome study offers blueprint for biomedical breakthroughs

Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine has achieved a significant milestone with its Tapestry study. It generated Mayo's largest-ever collection of exome data, which includes genes that code for proteins—key to understanding health and disease.  

Researchers analyzed DNA from over 100,000 participants of diverse backgrounds, providing important insights into certain genetic predispositions to support personalized and proactive medical guidance.  "The implications of the Tapestry study are monumental," says Konstantinos Lazaridis, M.D., the Carlson and Nelson Endowed Executive Director for the Center for Individualized Medicine. "As this study continues to inform and transform the practice of personalized medicine, it also sets a new standard for how large-scale medical research can be conducted in an increasingly digital and decentralized world."   

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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:

• Colette Gallagher, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post 10 Mayo Clinic research advances in 2024, spanning stem cell therapy in space to growing mini-organs appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Today, neurostimulation is used to treat a variety of human disorders, including Parkinson's disease, tremor, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome. A Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon and his colleagues believe one form of that treatment, called deep brain stimulation (DBS), is poised to solve one of the greatest public health challenges: drug addiction.

"Drug addiction is a huge, unmet medical need," says Kendall Lee, M.D., Ph.D., who has published nearly 100 journal articles on DBS along with his colleagues. Key to treating it, he says, is cutting off the pleasurable "high" that comes with the addiction — which DBS potentially can do.

"We now have several early studies showing promise in suppressing the rapid increase in dopamine that makes people feel high," he says.

Rethinking reward

In 2023, a record 112,000 people in the U.S. died after overdosing on drugs, including illicit drugs and prescription opioids. Even though several psychological and pharmaceutical treatments are available for addiction, as many as 75% to 98% of patients relapse.

"What's unique about addiction is it creates a pattern in the brain that is self-perpetuating. Essentially, the behavior reinforces itself, making it very resistant to intervention," says Mayo Clinic addiction psychiatrist Tyler Oesterle, M.D.

The brain is wired to make pleasure a priority. The brain’s reward system connects two tiny regions: the ventral tegmental area, which releases the feel-good chemical dopamine, and the nucleus accumbens, which controls memory and behavior. The former is why you feel a jolt of pleasure after biting into a hamburger. The latter is why your mouth waters whenever you smell someone fire up a grill. Drugs can overload this system, flooding it with dopamine and strengthening the connections that undergird addiction.

But what if you could short-circuit the reward system? If drugs no longer triggered a high, would they be easier to stop using? Preliminary research in animal models and humans suggests that it is possible to curtail drug-seeking behavior by electrically stimulating brain regions associated with reward.

"The results are promising, but we still don’t know how it works," says Mayo Clinic biomedical engineer Hojin Shin, Ph.D. "What we really need is a technique that allows us to see how the brain works and how the brain changes in response to stimulation so we can use that information to improve the treatment."

A dopamine sensor

As part of the Mayo Clinic Neural Engineering Laboratory, Dr. Shin and his colleague Yoonbae Oh, Ph.D., have been busy devising novel techniques to measure brain chemicals — such as dopamine and serotonin — in real time. The most recent iterations use electrodes composed of flexible carbon fibers thinner than a human hair, wirelessly connected to an electronic circuit that can simultaneously stimulate neurons and detect neurochemicals.

The researchers have used their innovations to glean important insights into the mechanisms of DBS and addiction in a preclinical study. The experimental DBS treatment cut the flow of dopamine to the nucleus accumbens, the brain’s reward center, by nearly half.

In another study, the team tested the approach on a rodent model of opioid addiction. When they gave the models a powerful opioid, they saw a spike in dopamine levels. But when they treated the models with DBS before administering the drug, that spike never happened. The experimental treatment also appeared to inhibit respiratory depression, the breathing difficulties responsible for the majority of opioid overdose deaths. 

The team recently received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to obtain approval for an FDA Investigational Device Exemption, a necessary step for future preclinical studies and clinical trials of this experimental treatment.

"To see addiction as a biological problem, and to address it with biological treatments like this, is a paradigm shift," says Dr. Oesterle. "We know that the standard behavioral or pharmaceutical interventions don't work for everybody. We're pushing the envelope here because we know we need to do something different, truly different, to help people rebuild their lives."

The researchers associated with this project have a financial interest in the technology referenced in this story. Review the studies for a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding.

The post Brain stimulation shows promise in treating drug addiction appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

A joint research study between Mayo Clinic and UCLA has yielded results, showing that the networks of neurons below a spinal cord injury still can function after paralysis. On the Mayo Clinic Radio podcast, co-principal investigators, Dr. Kendall Lee, neurosurgeon and director of Mayo Clinic's Neural Engineering Laboratories, and Dr. Kristin Zhao, director of Mayo Clinic’s Assistive and Restorative Technology Laboratory, explain the spinal cord stimulation research from the neurosurgery and rehabilitation perspectives. Megan Gill, a Mayo Clinic physical therapist, also joins the discussion. Also on the program, Kimberly Van Rooy, director of volunteers at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota, highlights all the jobs done by Mayo Clinic volunteers.

The post #MayoClinicRadio podcast: 10/6/18 appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

On the next Mayo Clinic Radio program, co-principal investigators, Dr. Kendall Lee, neurosurgeon and director of Mayo Clinic's Neural Engineering Laboratories, and Dr. Kristin Zhao, director of Mayo Clinic’s Assistive and Restorative Technology Laboratory, will explain the spinal cord stimulation research from the neurosurgery and rehabilitation perspectives. Megan Gill, a Mayo Clinic physical therapist, also will join the discussion. Also on the program, Kimberly Van Rooy, director of volunteers at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota, will highlight all the jobs done by Mayo Clinic volunteers.

Here's your Mayo Clinic Radio podcast.

The post Spinal stimulation research / Mayo Clinic volunteers: Mayo Clinic Radio appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

On the next Mayo Clinic Radio program, co-principal investigators, Dr. Kendall Lee, neurosurgeon and director of Mayo Clinic's Neural Engineering Laboratories, and Dr. Kristin Zhao, director of Mayo Clinic’s Assistive and Restorative Technology Laboratory, will explain the spinal cord stimulation research from the neurosurgery and rehabilitation perspectives. Megan Gill, a Mayo Clinic physical therapist, also will join the discussion. Also on the program, Kimberly Van Rooy, director of volunteers at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota, will highlight all the jobs done by Mayo Clinic volunteers.

To hear the program, find an affiliate in your area.

Use the hashtag #MayoClinicRadio, and tweet your questions.

Mayo Clinic Radio is on iHeartRadio.

Access archived shows or subscribe to the podcast.

Mayo Clinic Radio produces a weekly one-hour radio program highlighting health and medical information from Mayo Clinic.

The post Mayo Clinic Radio: Spinal cord stimulation research yields results appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

On the next Mayo Clinic Radio program, co-principal investigators, Dr. Kendall Lee, neurosurgeon and director of Mayo Clinic's Neural Engineering Laboratories, and Dr. Kristin Zhao, director of Mayo Clinic’s Assistive and Restorative Technology Laboratory, will explain the spinal cord stimulation research from the neurosurgery and rehabilitation perspectives. Megan Gill, a Mayo Clinic physical therapist, also will join the discussion. Also on the program, Kimberly Van Rooy, director of volunteers at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota, will highlight all the jobs done by Mayo Clinic volunteers.

To hear the program, find an affiliate in your area.

Miss the show?  Here's your Mayo Clinic Radio podcast.

Use the hashtag #MayoClinicRadio, and tweet your questions.

Mayo Clinic Radio is on iHeartRadio.

Access archived shows or subscribe to the podcast.

Mayo Clinic Radio produces a weekly one-hour radio program highlighting health and medical information from Mayo Clinic.

The post Mayo Clinic Radio: Spinal stimulation research / Mayo Clinic volunteers appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Spinal cord stimulation and physical therapy have helped a man paralyzed since 2013 regain his ability to stand and walk with assistance. The results, achieved in a research collaboration between Mayo Clinic and UCLA, are reported in Nature Medicine.

With an implanted stimulator turned on, the man, Jered Chinnock, was able to step with a front-wheeled walker while trainers provided occasional assistance. He made 113 rehabilitation visits to Mayo Clinic over a year, and achieved milestones during individual sessions:

• Total distance: 111 yards (102 meters) — about the length of a football field
• Total number of steps: 331
• Total minutes walking with assistance:16 minutes
• Step speed: 13 yards per minute (0.20 meters per second)

“What this is teaching us is that those networks of neurons below a spinal cord injury still can function after paralysis,” says Kendall Lee, M.D., Ph.D., co-principal investigator, neurosurgeon and director of Mayo Clinic's Neural Engineering Laboratories.

Watch: Spinal cord stimulation, physical therapy help paralyzed man stand, walk with assistance

Journalists: Broadcast-quality video (2:59) and video animation are in the downloads at the end of this post. Please ‘Courtesy Mayo Clinic News Network.’ Read the script.

In the study, Chinnock’s spinal cord was stimulated by an implanted electrode, enabling neurons to receive the signal that he wanted to stand or step.

“Now I think the real challenge starts, and that’s understanding how this happened, why it happened, and which patients will respond, says Kristin Zhao, Ph.D., co-principal investigator and director of Mayo Clinic’s Assistive and Restorative Technology Laboratory.

Currently, as a safety precaution, Chinnock takes steps only under the supervision of the research team.

Early findings

Chinnock, now 29, injured his spinal cord at the thoracic vertebrae in the middle of his back in a snowmobile accident in 2013. He was diagnosed with a complete loss of function below the spinal cord injury, meaning he could not move or feel anything below the middle of his torso.

In the study, which began in 2016, Chinnock participated in 22 weeks of physical therapy and then had an electrode surgically implanted by Dr. Lee and his Mayo Clinic neurosurgery team.

The implant sits in the epidural space  — the outermost part of the spinal canal — at a specific location below the injured area. The electrode connects to a pulse generator device under the skin of Chinnock’s abdomen and communicates wirelessly with an external controller. Mayo Clinic received permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to use the device for a condition not covered by its FDA-approved label.

Continued progress

The research team then tried to determine if Chinnock could stand and walk with assistance. During 113 rehabilitation sessions, the researchers adjusted stimulation settings, trainer assistance, harness support and speed of the treadmill to allow him maximum independence.

The research demonstrated that Chinnock was able to walk over ground using a front-wheeled walker and step on a treadmill placing his arms on support bars to help with balance. However, when stimulation was off, Chinnock remained paralyzed.

In the first week, Chinnock used a harness to lower his risk of falling and to provide upper body balance. Trainers were positioned at his knees and hips to help him stand, swing his legs and shift his weight. Because Chinnock did not regain sensation, he initially used mirrors to view his legs, and trainers described leg position, movement and balance. By week 25, he did not need a harness, and trainers offered only occasional help. By the end of the study period, he learned to use his entire body to transfer weight, maintain balance and propel forward, requiring minimal verbal cues and periodic glances at his legs.

Co-first authors are Megan Gill, physical therapist, and Peter Grahn, Ph.D., senior engineer. The Mayo researchers worked closely with the team of V. Reggie Edgerton, Ph.D., at UCLA on this study. Additional co-authors are Jonathan Calvert, Margaux Linde, Igor Lavrov, M.D., Ph.D, Jeffrey Strommen, M.D., Lisa Beck, Meegan Van Straaten, Dina Drubach, Daniel Veith, Andrew Thoreson and Cesar Lopez of Mayo Clinic; Dimitry Sayenko, M.D., Ph.D., Houston Methodist Research Institute; and Yury Gerasimenko, Ph.D., UCLA.

This research was funded by The Grainger Foundation, Regenerative Medicine Minnesota, Jack Jablonski BEL13VE in Miracles Foundation, Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Medicine, Mayo Clinic Rehabilitation Medicine Research Center, Mayo Clinic Transform the Practice, Minnesota Office of Higher Education Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury Research Grant Program, Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, Dana and Albert R. Broccoli Charitable Foundation, Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and Walkabout Foundation.

Authors Lee, Edgerton and Gerasimenko note conflict of interest disclosures.

Additional resources:

• Jered Chinnock standing with assistance
• Jered Chinnock walking with assistance
• Spinal implant

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to clinical practice, education and research, providing expert, comprehensive care to everyone who needs healing. Learn more about Mayo Clinic. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network.

Media contacts:

• Susan Barber Lindquist and Rhoda Madson, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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For Kendall Lee, M.D., Ph.D., being bilingual starts with language and extends to the training of physician-scientists. Born in a South Korean fishing village, he learned English only after moving to the United States at age 10. Dr. Lee is now a neurosurgeon and director of Mayo Clinic’s Neural Engineering Laboratory, where he leads the study of deep brain stimulation for treatment of Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, chronic pain and psychiatric disorders.

In January 2017, Dr. Lee became director of Mayo Clinic’s Medical Scientist Training Program, which prepares physician-scientists to lead a dual life of treating patients and pursuing scientific advances in patient care. Through the program, offered by Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, students earn both an M.D. and a Ph.D., learning  to connect the discovery of scientific knowledge with clinical problems.

In an interview with Discovery’s Edge, Dr. Lee shares his vision for Mayo’s M.D.-Ph.D. training program.

DE: Why did you want to be director of the Medical Scientist Training Program?

Dr. Lee: I’m at a point in my career where I know the importance of training the next generation of medical leaders. M.D.-Ph.D. training is for people who love to ask the question, “Why?” Why does something work? How does it work? What is the mechanism? In my case, the question that has dominated my career is: How does deep brain stimulation work? How can implanting an electrode in a human brain be used to repair brain function? And now we’re working on stimulating the spinal cord to reanimate paralyzed limbs.

Ultimately, this program is about serving our future patients. What I’m doing as a surgeon — implanting people’s brains with tiny computers — did not exist when I finished medical school. By training these highly gifted individuals, we will discover the cures we can’t imagine today.

DE: What is the current state of the program?

Dr. Lee: I inherited an incredibly strong program from Grazia Isaya, M.D., Ph.D., a director who was across-the-board outstanding. We have 47 outstanding students doing really exciting research and publishing in the top journals. They’re going to be the successful researchers and department chairs of tomorrow. In addition, we have outstanding faculty, many of whom completed the M.D-Ph.D. program themselves. My charge is to make the program even greater.

DE: You get excited about research and education. Why is that?

Dr. Lee: I’m passionate about the possibilities of medicine. Research and education are about the future. Investments in future treatments and our future leaders are important but not urgent. The results are many years away, but we have to imagine and work on them today. I want to have huge impact on our patients’ lives. That’s where my passion lies.

DE: What makes M.D.-Ph.D. training so challenging?

Dr. Lee: It’s like being bilingual. The M.D. is one language, and the Ph.D. is another language. The beauty of the M.D. degree is that it gives you incredible breadth of knowledge — all of the basic sciences as well as anatomy, physiology, pharmacology. And then you go through clinical training so you know how to take care of patients. The Ph.D. gets you depth of knowledge. You study one question to incredible depth. You learn how to think scientifically, carefully and methodically. I’m a neurosurgeon who is also doing both basic science and engineering research. I’ve been able to take information from the lab and apply it in the clinic and take what I’ve seen in the clinic back to the lab. The ability to do this is unique and comes from being dually educated in medical school and graduate research training. Another way to think of it is the M.D. sees with the left eye and the Ph.D. sees with the right eye. If you can see scientific problems through both lenses, you get 3-D vision. We want individuals who can combine those two ways of thinking.

DE: The Mayo program currently starts with two years of medical school, followed by four to five years of graduate school, then back to medical school for two years of clinical rotations. You favor a more integrated approach.

Dr. Lee: I believe that M.D.-Ph.D. students are able to walk the very difficult line of being a medical student and a graduate student at the same time. I’m not an M.D. one year and a Ph.D. the following year. I’m an M.D.-Ph.D. every day. I want to teach our students how to do that. It’s going to be challenging. The philosophy and culture of the two schools are very different, but the vision of the program is to integrate the strengths of both schools, so you get a stronger M.D. and a stronger Ph.D.

DE: What other changes do you foresee?

Dr. Lee: We’re expanding the program. We already had an incredible executive team with two associate directors, a coordinator and an administrator. We’ve added a third associate director plus assistant directors in Florida and in Arizona, where Mayo Clinic School of Medicine – Arizona Campus recently welcomed its inaugural class of 50 students. The program is becoming enterprise-wide, because we want to offer M.D.-Ph.D. training on all three campuses.

DE: You’ve been a mentor to more than 30 students, including undergraduates, master’s students, Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows and students in the Medical Scientist Training Program. What do you try to pass on?

Dr. Lee: Sometimes it’s more like being a Zen master. I have nothing — no thing — to teach you. It’s not memorizing. It’s teaching them how to think — artistically, beautifully and with excellence.

DE: What’s your motivation as a mentor?

Dr. Lee: At some point I have to retire. As I’m growing older, I realize that the best way to leave a legacy is to have as many students as you can and mentor them well. They carry the torch.

DE: You also have a master’s degree in philosophy. What would a philosopher say about the M.D.-Ph.D. program?

Dr. Lee: The M.D. is a doctor of medicine. Doctor comes from the Latin word docēre, which means to teach. So the M.D. is a teacher of medicine. The Ph.D. is a doctor of philosophy, which means love of wisdom. So the Ph.D. is a teacher of wisdom. After you go through the training, you realize that the vision of the M.D.-Ph.D. program is embedded in those letters.

- Jon Holten

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On the Mayo Clinic Radio podcast, Dr. Kristin Zhao, director of Mayo Clinic's Assistive and Restorative Technology Laboratory, and Dr. Kendall Lee, director of Mayo Clinic's Neural Engineering Laboratory, discuss a study being done at Mayo Clinic, in collaboration with UCLA researchers, that has successfully used intense physical therapy and electrical stimulation of the spinal cord to return voluntary movements to a previously paralyzed patient.

Also on the program, primary care physician Dr. Elizabeth Cozine discusses how to deal with seasonal allergies. And infectious disease specialist Dr. Pritish Tosh has an update on the effectiveness of this past season's flu vaccine.

The post #MayoClinicRadio Podcast: 5/6/17 appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

On the next Mayo Clinic Radio program, the study's principal investigators, Dr. Kristin Zhao, director of Mayo Clinic's Assistive and Restorative Technology Laboratory, and Dr. Kendall Lee, director of Mayo Clinic's Neural Engineering Laboratory, will discuss the results and what's ahead in spinal cord injury research.

Also on the program, Dr. Elizabeth Cozine, a Mayo Clinic Health System primary care physician, will discuss how to deal with seasonal allergies. And infectious disease specialist Dr. Pritish Tosh will have an update on the effectiveness of this past season's flu vaccine.

Here's your Mayo Clinic Radio podcast.

The post Spinal cord injury research: Mayo Clinic Radio appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.