On a global stage in Berlin, surrounded by leading scientists and engineers in quantum computing, a Mayo Clinic team earned first place at the Berlin Quantum Hackathon 2026.

The five-week hackathon challenged six finalist teams to prove that quantum computing — one of science's newest and most complex frontiers — can solve meaningful problems beyond theory. More than 180 teams applied to compete. The awards were presented on March 5.

The Mayo team built a novel quantum-powered model capable of detecting movement intention directly from brain activity. 

Code, circuits and possibility

Inside the competition hall, conversations unfolded in the language of quantum science — qubits, circuits and optimization algorithms. Teams presented performance metrics to an expert judging panel that challenged assumptions and tested claims on the spot. Technical execution, scalability and real-world impact all factored into the score.

Among them stood a Mayo Clinic team that had begun studying quantum computing only a year earlier.

They approached the challenge the way Mayo Clinic approaches medicine: with the patient at the center and the science pushed to its limits.

Decoding the intent to move

The team's work began with a clinical question: What happens when the brain intends to move, but the body cannot?

In people living with paralysis or other motor impairments, the brain still sends the signal, carrying intention across neural networks even when the body cannot respond.

The team set out to detect that signal by distinguishing the intent to move a left hand from a right — a subtle difference buried within the brain's constant electrical rhythm.

They drew on electroencephalogram, or EEG, recordings, which capture the brain's electrical activity as continuous waves layered with motion and background noise.

To isolate that distinction, they built a hybrid system that combined advanced AI with emerging quantum tools. That required learning the language of quantum science.

"One of our secrets to success was focusing on the complete solution, not just the computational challenge," says Dr. Rickey Carter, professor of biostatistics at Mayo Clinic and the team leader. "We built around patients' needs and paid close attention to the edge cases where the model struggled. That's where we concentrated our quantum efforts."

If validated in future research, such signals could one day help guide assistive technologies or prosthetics, potentially enabling more precise control of movement.

At the leading edge of discovery 

For Dr. Charles Bruce, chief innovation officer at Mayo Clinic in Florida, the hackathon reflected a broader commitment: building bridges across disciplines and borders in a field that advances through shared expertise.

"Standing alongside leaders in this field strengthened our work and reminded us that advancement happens together," Dr. Bruce says. "We entered this challenge as underdogs. None of us had prior quantum computing experience. But progress is built collectively. You learn from one another, blending biology with data science, and the work becomes stronger because of it."

The multidisciplinary team from Mayo Clinic in Florida — Dr. Carter, Miko Wieczorek, Dr. Michele Dougherty, Dr. Feifei Li and Dr. Bruce — built the model from the ground up. Mayo Clinic's Quantum Sensing and Computing program supported the effort, exploring how emerging quantum technologies may intersect with patient care.

Miko Wieczorek, a data scientist in the Mayo Clinic Digital Innovation Lab, led the team's work running the model on a quantum computer — a first for Mayo.

"When our model executed successfully on a quantum computer, it felt like stepping into the next chapter of science," Wieczorek says. "In that moment, we realized we weren't just observing this field — we were helping shape it."

Dr. Michele Dougherty, a medical physicist in Radiation Oncology, contributed expertise in complex optimization.

"Quantum computing could eventually help us design safer and more precise radiation treatments," she says. "If it accelerates how we find the best possible plan for a patient, that's meaningful."

Dr. Feifei Li, a former theoretical physicist who is now a medical physicist in Radiation Oncology at Mayo Clinic, says the project highlights how quantum computing could expand the boundaries of medical research.

"Some scientific questions remain unsolved not because we lack data, but because of how difficult they are to model," Dr. Li says. "Quantum computing gives us a different way to approach that complexity."

Quantum computing moves toward application

The event was hosted by Berlin-based quantum software company Kipu Quantum and supported by the State of Berlin's Quantum Initiative and the Charité-Berlin University Medicine.

"Quantum computing is proving this year that we can design hybrid quantum-classical solutions for tackling industrial problems," says Enrique Solano, CEO of Kipu Quantum. "Medical imaging and life science will occupy a key role in the list of applications. By winning the hackathon, Mayo Clinic is making an important step toward this visionary goal."

Shaping the frontier 

For the Mayo Clinic team, the Berlin hackathon reaffirmed that real progress begins with curiosity, collaboration and the courage to explore uncharted territory. Together, they showed how multidisciplinary teams can carry some of healthcare's most pressing challenges toward its next frontier.

The post Mayo Clinic team takes quantum leap to win global competition with brain-signal model appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Southeast Health and Mayo Clinic announced that Southeast Health in Dothan, Alabama, has joined the Mayo Clinic Care Network. Southeast Health, a community-based academic health system, is the first hospital in Alabama to join Mayo Clinic Care Network.

Mayo Clinic Care Network members receive special access to Mayo Clinic's knowledge and expertise, including transformational capabilities and access to digital solutions and technologies from Mayo Clinic Platform. Members are carefully vetted, independent healthcare organizations.

"Being invited to join the Mayo Clinic Care Network is a tremendous honor for Southeast Health and a meaningful milestone for the patients and communities we serve," says Rick Sutton, CEO of Southeast Health and president of the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine. "This collaboration gives our physicians access to Mayo Clinic's world-renowned expertise while ensuring patients can continue receiving high-quality care close to home. It also reflects our team's unwavering commitment to advancing clinical excellence and furthers our goals to become one of the top health systems in the nation."

Healthcare professionals from Southeast Health can combine their understanding of their patients' medical needs with Mayo Clinic expertise, so patients get the care they need, close to home.

"We are pleased to welcome Southeast Health into the Mayo Clinic Care Network," says Ryan Uitti, M.D., medical director, Mayo Clinic Platform. "This collaboration showcases their commitment to excellence and their readiness to leverage Mayo Clinic resources to benefit patients across this region."

Through Southeast Health's membership in the Mayo Clinic Care Network, its healthcare professionals have access to Mayo Clinic Platform-enabled clinical solutions and services, including:

• AskMayoExpert: A point-of-care tool offering concise clinical information on hundreds of medical conditions, including medical protocols, treatment recommendations and medical references. The database can be used wherever healthcare is provided.
• eConsults: Connections to Mayo Clinic specialists for second opinions on specific patient cases.
• eBoards: Live, scheduled video conferences that enable medical teams at Southeast Health to review and discuss complex cases with a Mayo Clinic multidisciplinary panel and other physicians in the Mayo Clinic Care Network.
• Healthcare consulting: Access to Mayo Clinic's extensive experience, knowledge and subspecialty expertise to achieve clinical, operational and business goals.

Staff from Southeast Health can use Mayo Clinic educational materials designed for patients and access opportunities for professional development and continuous medical education.

Southeast Health and other Mayo Clinic Care Network members remain independent and join an ecosystem of more than 45 healthcare organizations around the world.

###

About Southeast Health
Southeast Health is an academic community-based health system serving residents in southeast Alabama, southwest Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.
The system includes a 420-bed Medical Center, the region's largest network of primary care and specialty clinics, a philanthropic foundation, Statera Network for population health and the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine (ACOM).
Southeast Health, a not-for-profit system, promotes healing, prevents disease, educates medicine's brightest minds, and brings wellness and prosperity to the region.

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. 

About Mayo Clinic Platform
Mayo Clinic Platform is a strategic initiative of Mayo Clinic that enables collaboration, data-driven innovation and responsible AI development to transform healthcare globally. Mayo Clinic Platform is reimagining healthcare as an ecosystem—one where data, digital solutions, and expertise flow seamlessly between innovators and care teams to improve care for patients everywhere.

Media contacts:

• Caroline Auger, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu 
• Mark Stewart, Southeast Health Communications, marketing@southeasthealth.org

The post Southeast Health in Alabama joins Mayo Clinic Care Network appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a drug-and-supplement combination therapy that is capable of reducing the harmful effects of senescent cells – also known as "zombie cells" – in diabetic kidney disease. In eBioMedicine, a publication of The Lancet, the team reported that the combination of the cancer drug dasatanib and a naturally occurring substance known as quercetin decreased inflammation and boosted protective factors in the kidney.

Diabetic kidney disease affects more than 12 million people in the U.S. and is the leading cause of kidney failure. While newer treatments can delay loss of kidney function, there is currently no cure.

"Our study found that the combination therapy, given over a short period of time, reduced the abundance of senescent cells in a preclinical model of diabetic kidney disease and also improved kidney function," says LaTonya Hickson, M.D., a nephrologist at Mayo Clinic in Florida and principal investigator of the study.

To extend the health of the kidney, researchers have been interested in addressing the presence of senescent cells, which fail to undergo the natural death process and linger in tissues, contributing to aging and disease. The treatment approach involves senolytics, natural and designed substances that together selectively target senescent cells.

In a previously conducted, pilot clinical trial, Dr. Hickson and Mayo Clinic researchers found that the combination of dasatanib and quercetin reduced senescent cells in skin and fat tissues in patients with diabetic kidney disease. However, the effect of the combination therapy on senescence and protective factors in the diabetic kidney had not yet been described.  

"It was important to prove that this one-time, short-course treatment has an effect on the kidneys, and we wanted to do so without invasive procedures in patients," says Xiaohui Bian, M.D., Ph.D., a nephrologist who conducted the work as a postdoctoral fellow at Mayo Clinic and is lead author on the study.

In a preclinical model of diabetic kidney disease, the team found that the combination therapy improved kidney function and protective factors while reducing injury, senescent cells, and inflammation. In cultured human kidney cells, the combination therapy also reduced the abundance of senescent cells and the inflammatory process they prompt.

"The results show this combination treatment holds potential to help reduce and halt kidney damage from diabetes," says Dr. Hickson. "Promising findings from these two investigations now suggest that larger scale studies using senolytics should be pursued in patients to improve kidney health."

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

### 

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:

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

The post Mayo Clinic researchers find combination therapy reduces effects of ‘zombie cells’ in diabetic kidney disease appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic Platform_Accelerate has announced its latest cohort, welcoming 18 national and international healthcare technology companies that are creating cutting-edge digital solutions to advance health innovation.

Through the Accelerate program, these companies will participate in an immersive, 30-week program that offers access to expert mentors, industry-leading technologies and millions of de-identified, longitudinal clinical records to develop and validate artificial intelligence (AI)-driven healthcare solutions.

"The future of healthcare depends on clinical insight and technology advancing together," says John Halamka, M.D., Dwight and Dian Diercks President of Mayo Clinic Platform. "Accelerate brings entrepreneurs together with Mayo Clinic clinicians and other leading experts to turn bold ideas into practical solutions that can truly improve how care is delivered. It's one more way we're responsibly advancing AI to benefit patients around the world."

The 18 companies participating in the new cohort are working to address complex healthcare challenges. The cohort includes:

• 100ms builds AI agents that automate patient access workflows for specialty practices, including gastroenterology, allergy/immunology and neurology.
• NousLogic Telehealth provides WFH: Wellness from Home, a remote elderly patient monitoring platform that tracks vital signs and real-time medication adherence, including AI-based medication dispensing. 
• MyBackHub is an AI-powered digital health platform that delivers personalized, nonoperative back pain care using AI to triage patients and guide treatment and care coordination.
• Cura AI builds a patient context graph that unifies fragmented patient data into a portable, patient-owned record, enabling conversational AI to support early-risk detection and preventive care.
• SPRYT developsAsa, an AI medical receptionist that empowers patients to book, change and pay for medical appointments via text or instant messaging in their preferred language.
• NeoCure Inc. is developing an AI solution that analyzes bedside vital data to enable timely, specialist-free detection of an eye disease affecting preterm infants.
• Xcoo provides Chrovis, an AI-powered service that supports genomic cancer diagnosis and treatment decisions with clinician-ready insights and patient-friendly reports.
• YOBO Health offers a care coordination platform designed to help prevent hospital readmissions among patients with cardio-renal-metabolic conditions.
• Canary Applied Intelligence delivers a patient-centric AI platform for cardio-renal care that identifies high-risk patients early and enables proactive, data-driven interventions across the care journey.
• Curenetics is a U.K.-based AI-driven health technology company that predicts individual patient response to cancer immunotherapy by integrating clinical, genomic and imaging data.
• Bluevia Health is an applied AI platform that analyzes multimodal clinical data to detect postoperative deterioration earlier, helping health systems identify complications sooner and improve surgical outcomes.
• Precision Imaging Inc. is a Tokyo-based medtech startup specializing in AI-powered intraoperative navigation that uses computer vision to deliver cost-effective, high-precision guidance for orthopedic surgery, starting with total hip arthroplasty.
• Avedian provides the Compass Decision Support platform, delivering operational insights that help health systems improve efficiency, performance and capacity planning.
• Hoopcare reduces surgical risk and improves operating room efficiency by automating preoperative evaluation and predicting postoperative complications with AI.
• Hera is an AI-powered male fertility platform that combines testing with predictive analytics to deliver personalized sperm health insights for patients, clinics and fertility programs.
• EW2Health is a digital health platform that uses predictive behavioral analytics to support GLP-1–based obesity care by forecasting weight trends and enabling proactive, personalized interventions to improve adherence and long-term metabolic health.
• Ecotone AI applies frontier AI and full-genome analysis to uncover disease-driving genetic mechanisms and accelerate precision therapies for rare diseases at scale.
• OneMedic is a Vietnam-based health tech company using an AI-driven ecosystem to enable early detection and proactive management of chronic disease through integrated, patient-centered care in a primary care setting.

"The innovation we're seeing in this February cohort is a testament to the accelerating pace of AI in medicine," says Jamie Sundsbak, director of the Accelerate program. "We are proud to support these 18 companies as they transition from revolutionary concepts to scalable solutions that can help define the next decade of healthcare."

The Accelerate program offers multiple ways to participate through a 30-week immersive program or a multiyear engagement pathway.

To learn more about the program or to apply for an upcoming cohort, visit Mayo Clinic Platform_Accelerate.

###

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. 

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:

• Caroline Auger, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic Platform_Accelerate welcomes new cohort of healthcare technology startups appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Alzheimer's-related brain changes progressed up to 20 times faster in women who also had abnormal levels of a Parkinson's-related protein, according to a Mayo Clinic study published in JAMA Network Open. The same pattern was not observed in men.

The findings suggest that when alpha-synuclein — a protein linked to Parkinson's disease — accumulates alongside Alzheimer's pathology, it may drive faster disease progression in women. That interaction could help explain a long-standing disparity: women make up nearly two-thirds of people living with Alzheimer's disease in the U.S.

Kejal Kantarci, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neuroradiologist and senior author of the study, uses advanced brain imaging to track Alzheimer's progression.

"Recognizing these sex-specific differences could help us design more targeted clinical trials and ultimately more personalized treatment strategies," Dr. Kantarci says. "When we see disease-related changes unfolding at dramatically different rates, we cannot keep approaching Alzheimer's as though it behaves exactly the same way in everyone. Co-pathologies may impact the disease process."

Alzheimer's disease is marked by the buildup of tau protein in the brain. Many people along the Alzheimer's disease continuum also develop abnormal clumping of α-synuclein, a protein associated with Lewy body diseases such as Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.

Tau and α-synuclein occur naturally in the brain. In neurodegenerative diseases, however, these proteins can misfold and clump together, forming abnormal deposits. This pathological buildup disrupts communication between brain cells and contributes to cognitive decline.

Researchers set out to determine whether having both abnormal protein buildups alters how the disease progresses and whether that effect differs between women and men.

To investigate, the team analyzed data from 415 participants in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, a national research consortium that tracks brain changes over time. Participants underwent cerebrospinal fluid testing to detect abnormal α-synuclein and repeated brain imaging to measure changes in tau accumulation. About 17% of participants showed evidence of abnormal α-synuclein.

Among participants with both Alzheimer's-related pathology and α-synuclein abnormalities, women accumulated tau dramatically faster than men with the same coexisting protein changes.

Elijah Mak, Ph.D., first author of the study and a Mayo Clinic neuroimaging researcher, studies how multiple brain pathologies interact and drive disease progression.

"This opens an entirely new direction for understanding why women bear a disproportionate burden of dementia," Dr. Mak says. "If we can unravel the mechanisms behind this vulnerability, we may uncover targets we haven't considered before."

The researchers are now examining whether these sex-specific effects also appear in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies, where α-synuclein is the primary disease driver rather than a coexisting pathology. The work will help determine whether the observed difference is unique to Alzheimer's disease or reflects a broader sex-specific vulnerability across neurodegenerative conditions.

For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding, review the study.

###

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:

• Tia Ford, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic researchers link Parkinson’s-related protein to faster Alzheimer’s progression in women  appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a hidden "movement map" deep within the brain — a discovery that could help surgeons reduce side effects from epilepsy procedures and guide future treatments for speech and movement disorders.

In a study published Feb. 18 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team reports that a small, buried brain region called the insula contains its own organized map of the body. Distinct areas within the insula are linked to movement of the hands, feet, and tongue.

The finding has immediate relevance for epilepsy care. Surgeons sometimes operate in or near the insula to treat seizures, and up to 30% of patients can experience temporary problems with speech, swallowing or hand movement afterward. Until now, doctors did not have detailed maps showing exactly where those functions are located in this deep brain region.

"If we can identify where hand and speech functions live in each patient, we can better anticipate — and potentially avoid — those deficits," says Panos Kerezoudis, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurosurgery resident and lead author of the study. "This gives us a practical roadmap."

The insula sits several centimeters beneath the brain's surface, hidden under other lobes, which has made it difficult to study with traditional techniques.

"For a long time, people thought this region was generally active during many tasks — more of an integrator than a structured map," says Dr. Kerezoudis. "We wanted to know whether it follows the same organized layout we see in the main motor cortex, or if it responds the same way no matter what you move."

To answer that question, researchers in the Cybernetics and Motor Physiology Lab at Mayo studied 18 patients with medically refractory epilepsy who had thin recording electrodes placed deep in their brains as part of their clinical care.

While hospitalized, patients performed simple movements such as opening and closing their hand, moving their tongue, or flexing their foot. The electrodes recorded electrical activity in both the insula and the primary motor cortex, the brain's main movement center, with millisecond precision.

The results showed clear organization: hand movements activated one area of the insula, tongue movements another and foot movements yet another, though less prominently.

"We found distinct body-part representation in this deep structure," says Dr. Kerezoudis. "It is not random. There is order."

The timing of activity was also revealing. The primary motor cortex became active first, followed by the insula, and then movement occurred.

"This shows that the insula is not simply reacting after we move," says Kai Miller, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon and senior author of the study. "This discovery expands our understanding of how movement is supported by a distributed brain network whose parts are more tightly integrated than we previously thought. By mapping it carefully, we can make brain surgery and neuromodulation safer, more precise, and beneficial for more people."

In a subset of patients, researchers delivered brief, safe electrical pulses to test how the regions communicate. Stimulating a hand-related area in the motor cortex triggered a response in the matching area of the insula, and the same pattern held for tongue regions.

"The connections respect the body map — hand connects to hand, tongue to tongue," says Dr. Kerezoudis. "That strengthens the case that this is an organized network."

Clinically, the findings could help neurologists better interpret seizure symptoms, such as hand contractions or facial movements, and refine electrode placement during epilepsy evaluations. Surgeons may also use individualized maps to plan procedures more precisely.

Beyond epilepsy, the work may inform future therapies for stroke survivors with speech or hand movement difficulties. If movement relies on a network that includes both the primary motor cortex and the insula, treatments such as targeted brain stimulation may need to address both areas.

The study supports Mayo Clinic's Bioelectronic Neuromodulation Innovation to Cure (BIONIC) initiative by using advanced brain-recording technology to translate scientific discoveries into practical care strategies. It also aligns with Pre-cure, which focuses on anticipating and preventing complications before they occur — such as identifying critical movement areas before surgery rather than reacting to deficits afterward.

For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding, review the study.

###  

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:

• Tia Ford, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic researchers discover hidden brain map that may improve epilepsy care appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In a study published in Nature Communications, Mayo Clinic researchers have identified specific DNA-level changes in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Using advanced biological analysis, the team mapped alterations in the brain’s regulatory landscape that may help explain why Alzheimer's presents and progresses differently from person to person. The findings could also open new avenues for understanding other neurodegenerative diseases.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. Biologically, the disease begins with the formation of protein deposits, known as amyloid plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. This causes brain cells to die over time and the brain to shrink. About 6.9 million people in the U.S. age 65 and older live with Alzheimer's disease. There is no cure, and in advanced stages, complications can result in a significant decline in quality of life and death.

The Mayo research team studied brain tissue from the Mayo Clinic Department of Neuroscience Brain Bank, examining brain tissue from 472 people with AD, and analyzed patterns of DNA methylation — a type of chemical "tag" on DNA — across the genome. These samples include detailed measurements of Alzheimer's-related changes — both the visible brain changes seen under a microscope and the levels of key AD proteins.

“While our study findings are impactful by themselves, we did not want to stop there and sought to make both our data and results available to the research community in a way that also protects donor identities," says Nilüfer Ertekin-Taner, M.D., Ph.D., chair of Neuroscience at Mayo Clinic, a physician-scientist and senior author of the study. "We wanted to do this because relatively few groups have the expertise to analyze such big data and derive biological insights."

Uncovering a myelin-related pathway in AD 

The findings suggest that in AD, part of what happens in the brain may involve changes in DNA tagging that affect the function of oligodendrocytes, particularly in relation to the buildup of the toxic protein tau.

Oligodendrocytes are the brain cells that make myelin, the insulation that helps nerve cells communicate. Scientists have theorized that disrupting neuron communication contributes to symptoms for people with AD. Researchers in this study found that nearly all significant methylation changes — small chemical tags added to DNA that help control when genes are turned on or off — were linked to the tau protein. This supports the idea that this protein plays a key role in brain cell changes tied to AD.

"Our team has previously shown that oligodendrocytes are affected in Alzheimer's and another tau-related disease, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP)," says Dr. Ertekin-Taner. "These new results further highlight that problems in oligodendrocytes and myelin are central to AD. They also point to specific molecular pathways, particularly epigenetic changes, that could be targeted in future therapies."

Epigenetic changes are chemical tags on DNA that help control how genes are expressed, or turned on or off, without altering the genetic code itself. Because these changes influence how brain cells function and may be reversible. They offer promising targets for future Alzheimer’s treatments.

Opening the door for future research

The study results identified new genes that may play a role in AD, including one called LDB3, and confirmed many findings across multiple independent datasets, showing its reliability. The identification of specific genes provides potential targets for future research — for example, scientists might investigate whether interventions that reverse methylation or support oligodendrocyte health can slow or modify disease progression for patients with AD.

The Mayo research team also developed an interactive tool to help with digital searching of the dataset. Called the Multiomic Atlas of AD Brain Endophenotypes, this free application is a way to make information accessible and enable further research about AD and neurology. The dataset can be searched by gene name or chromosomal location, and results are presented in both table and interactive plot formats.

While this work will continue to shape research, its impact extends beyond Mayo Clinic and will provide a valuable resource for scientists worldwide. Stephanie Oatman, Ph.D., the study's lead author, conducted this work during her doctoral training in Dr. Ertekin-Taner's laboratory and is now a postdoctoral research fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

"To build on our understanding of Alzheimer's disease and work toward helping people living with the disease, it's crucial that other researchers can easily access the comprehensive analyses we performed in this study," she says. "This shared access can amplify the impact of our research across different scientific fields and ultimately benefit patients."

For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding, review the study.  

###

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:

• Tia Ford, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic researchers identify key DNA changes in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A single 25 mg dose of a combination of amphetamine-dextroamphetamine salts (Adderall) can have measurable cardiovascular effects in healthy young adults, a Mayo Clinic study found. Researchers, whose findings are published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, aimed to better understand how the stimulant affects those who use it without a medical prescription.

"The primary objective of our study was to investigate how a single dose of Adderall acutely affects cardiovascular hemodynamics — blood pressure and heart rate — and sympathetic activity in young adults who do not have a medical indication for the medication," says senior author Anna Svatikova, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist.

While Adderall is safe and effective when prescribed and monitored for ADHD, Dr. Svatikova says the risks of unsupervised use are often underestimated.

"We have seen an increase in nonmedical Adderall use, but many users are unaware that it can place acute stress on the cardiovascular system," Dr. Svatikova says.

"Adderall is sometimes used without a prescription outside of a medical setting, " she adds. "We found that even in individuals with no prior exposure, a 25 mg dose triggers significant increases in blood pressure, heart rate and activation of the body’s stress-response system."

Researchers also noted that even when people simply stood up after taking Adderall, their heart rates spiked much higher than usual.

"The average heart rate increase on standing was 19 beats per minute before Adderall. After taking Adderall, that response doubled to 38 beats per minute," says first author Kiran Somers, D.O., a resident family medicine physician at Mayo Clinic Health System in Northwest Wisconsin.

The findings highlight how stimulating effects can be in individuals who are not accustomed to the medication, the researchers say.

"These results demonstrate measurable, acute cardiovascular effects of Adderall used by those not regularly using Adderall prescribed for specific medical reasons," Dr. Somers says.

The researchers underscore that these findings apply to off-prescription use and do not reflect the long-term, supervised use of the medication for the treatment of ADHD. These findings should not be extrapolated to the long-term, supervised use of Adderall for the treatment of ADHD or other specific medical conditions, where the therapeutic benefits are well established and significant, Dr. Svatikova says.

### 

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 Study: 1 dose of non-prescribed Adderall raises blood pressure, heart rate in healthy young adults appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

PHOENIX — A multi-institutional study led by Mayo Clinic and published in Cell Reports Medicine reports that pairing a next-generation immunotherapy with standard hormone therapy before surgery may help overcome a long-standing barrier in early-stage prostate cancer treatment. 

Immunotherapy has been generally ineffective for prostate cancer because the tumors are considered immunologically "cold," meaning they do not attract enough immune cells to mount a strong attack. Hormone therapy commonly used for prostate cancer, called androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), can temporarily make tumors more responsive by drawing immune cells into the cancer. But that benefit is short-lived: the treatment also increases levels of regulatory T cells (Tregs), which act as brakes on the immune system and blunt its anti-cancer effects.  

In the first-in-human, early-phase randomized trial, researchers tested whether adding a next-generation immunotherapy to hormone therapy before surgery could counteract that immune-suppression. The combination reduced Treg levels inside prostate tumors. Patients whose tumors showed the greatest reductions were more likely to remain cancer-free during follow-up. 

"This trial provided a unique opportunity to test a new immunotherapy drug in patients who have localized prostate cancer. They don't have metastatic disease yet, but they are at high risk of reaching that stage. These are patients who possibly can be cured," says Casey Ager, Ph.D., a cancer immunology researcher at Mayo Clinic and first author of the study.   

ADT starves cancer cells of male hormones like testosterone, which they use as fuel. Desirable immune effects of ADT are cut short by Tregs, which normally keep the immune system from overreacting to substances and attacking the body. In the case of prostate cancer, Dr. Ager says they limit immunotherapy effectiveness. 

"Hormonal therapy brings many types of immune cells in that can attack and kill the tumor. But this comes with an equal and opposite reaction where Tregs also come in and suppress the immune system, allowing the tumor to ultimately progress," says Dr. Ager. He and a team of Mayo Clinic researchers collaborated with colleagues at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Bristol Myers Squibb to investigate whether suppressing Tregs could overcome this hurdle by safely releasing the immune system's "brakes" to help it mount a better response against prostate cancer. 

The study, which was designed to evaluate safety and biological effects, enrolled 24 men with high-risk, localized prostate cancer and found that adding the investigational Fc-enhanced anti-CTLA-4 antibody BMS-986218 to hormone therapy significantly reduced Tregs inside tumors compared with hormone therapy alone. 

"Selective Treg depletion in tumors has been a long-sought goal of the oncology field for some time. We had the opportunity to test a drug that's been engineered to better deplete Tregs than the drugs we previously had. It targets CTLA-4, which is highly expressed on Tregs, particularly within tumors," says Dr. Ager. 

The findings provide the first clinical evidence that an engineered anti-CTLA-4 therapy can deplete regulatory T cells within prostate tumors. 

Because the treatment was given before surgery, researchers also were able to analyze large sections of the surgically removed prostate tumors following treatment, rather than being limited to minuscule tissue biopsies, which harbor few immune cells to study. Dr. Ager says this rare opportunity allowed them to use multiple advanced technologies in parallel to map at unprecedented depth how this novel immunotherapy treatment affected the complex immune milieu of prostate cancer, down to the level of individual immune cells. This comprehensive look inside the tumor provided new clues about how the therapy affects immune cells, which patients may benefit most, and identified potential biomarkers to guide future trials. 

"These findings establish the clinical feasibility of immunotherapy in early-stage prostate cancer, and they provide an invaluable dataset from which to develop and deploy new, evidence-based immunotherapy approaches in these patients," says Dr. Ager. 

For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding, review the study. 

### 

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: 

• Julie Ferris-Tillman, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Study identifies potential immunotherapy strategy for early-stage prostate cancer  appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The brain may inadvertently "learn" to have seizures by treating them like important memories to be stored, according to new research from Mayo Clinic.

The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, found that after a seizure, the brain enters a deep sleep state that mimics memory storage — and that this effect can persist into the following night's sleep. In effect, this "saves" the seizure's path like a normal memory, strengthening the disease. The findings suggest new opportunities to prevent epilepsy from worsening by targeting brain activity during the hours immediately following a seizure and during the subsequent night of sleep — a critical period when harmful brain changes may occur.

"Sleep is one of the brain's most powerful tools for learning and memory," says Vaclav Kremen, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and engineer at Mayo Clinic and lead author of the study. "What we're seeing is that after a seizure, the brain may be engaging the same biological processes used to consolidate memories, but instead reinforcing the networks that generate seizures."

Epilepsy affects an estimated 50 million people worldwide, and many patients continue to have seizures despite medication. Understanding the relationship between seizures and sleep could help explain why epilepsy can worsen over time and why memory, mood and sleep problems are common in people with the condition.

The study analyzed long-term brain recordings from implanted devices in 11 people with epilepsy. Using these recordings, researchers compared sleep patterns on nights following seizures to nights when no recent seizures occurred.

They found that after a seizure, the brain consistently entered a prolonged and intensified state of deep sleep, known as non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. During this period, slow brain waves became stronger and steeper — key features of memory consolidation — particularly within the specific brain regions where seizures originate.

At the same time, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is important for emotional processing and cognitive health, was reduced. On average, patients slept longer and spent more time in deep sleep after seizures, but they experienced less REM sleep compared with seizure-free nights.

The researchers call this process seizure-related consolidation, a phenomenon in which seizures appear to hijack the brain's normal learning mechanisms. Rather than helping the brain recover, this post-seizure sleep state may strengthen abnormal neural circuits, creating a vicious cycle in which each seizure increases the likelihood of future seizures.

"Instead of treating seizures as isolated events, this research shows they may actively shape the brain in ways that promote disease progression," says Dr. Kremen.

Importantly, the findings point to a potential new window for treatment — the hours and nights after a seizure — when targeted intervention could disrupt this harmful learning process.

"If we can safely intervene during this post-seizure window, we may be able to weaken seizure networks rather than reinforce them,” says Gregory Worrell, M.D., Ph.D., a neurologist at Mayo Clinic and senior author of the study.

These insights support Mayo Clinic's Bioelectronics Neuromodulation Innovation to Cure (BIONIC) initiative, which aims to devise personalized neuromodulation therapies to prevent, treat, and potentially reverse neurological disease. By combining long-term brain sensing, advanced analytics and an understanding of how the brain adapts after seizures, the study highlights the potential for bioelectronic approaches to promote healthier brain function.

Future research will focus on translating these discoveries into BIONIC-enabled therapies, including adaptive closed-loop brain stimulation systems designed to respond to seizures and sleep states in real time. Mayo Clinic researchers have already begun designing next-generation approaches aimed at breaking this cycle and restoring normal brain activity.

###

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:

• Tia Ford, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Brain may reinforce seizures during sleep, Mayo Clinic study suggests appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.