Research

Working together to solve today’s health challenges 

The Mayo Clinic and Illinois Alliance empowers investigator-driven collaborations and strategic partnerships that advance patient care. Combining clinical expertise with engineering and computational excellence, researchers from both institutions collaborate on research projects, publications, patent disclosures, algorithms, and other tools that drive innovation.

Revolutionizing a new standard in cancer surgery

“This award will mean that years' worth of preliminary technology development and early clinical surgical studies will now be able to reach the finish line with an end-solution and fully integrated platform that will be demonstrated in rigorous clinical studies and trials, and will be driven toward commercialization, dissemination, and benefit to many cancer patients.”

Stephen Boppart, M.D., Ph.D., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Learn about MarginDx

Biomedical collaboration & discovery

The Alliance works to address many diseases and health challenges, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, depression, personalized nutrition, and more. Key areas of biomedical collaboration and discovery for the Alliance include the following:

  • Computation
  • Data Science
  • Systems
  • Devices
  • Therapeutics
  • Biomarkers

A small sample of recent joint projects and publications are featured on the page below. Find more research news

Mayo Clinic biobank

100+

collaborations to date

70+

joint publications

$26M

in joint federal funding

7

patents

Can AI help predict which drugs will work best for each patient?

In 2017, Mayo Clinic and Illinois Alliance set out to accelerate clinical analysis of the whole human genome. The goal was to very quickly identify genetic variations (in hours rather than days) and to increase our ability to interpret genetic variations that may be linked to disease.

Since then, the Alliance has created a new “Mayomics” clinical workflow, developed a tool to better understand disease pathways, and produced a drug efficacy tool that predicts efficacy of a drug on individual patients, future health complications, and suggested patient-specific therapy, and explains how a drug functions and why it may not respond. These advances are particularly promising for the treatment of major depressive disorder and some cancers.

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Colleen Bushell

“One of the reasons we have worked together for so long is because we have common values and goals. Our intention is to continually improve human health – whether that is through research and discovery, through development of new tools, or by improving communication and understanding.”

Colleen Bushell, Ph.D., Director of Healthcare Innovation
National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Can a new kind of microscope lead to faster and more accurate clinical decision-making?

A novel infrared spectroscopic imaging technology, developed by Illinois researchers, uses artificial intelligence to diagnose diseases based on their chemistry. By working with Mayo Clinic physicians to integrate it into clinical workflows, the team is improving patient diagnoses and decision-making for cancer and cardiovascular diseases.”

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Can Collaborative Efforts Revolutionize Pancreatic Cancer Treatment? 

Mayo Clinic and Illinois researchers are pioneering advancements in pancreatic cancer treatment. Utilizing cutting-edge imaging technologies, the interdisciplinary team is working on methods to enhance chemotherapy effectiveness and accelerate patient-specific treatment plans.  If successful, this promising research could revolutionize clinical workflows, offering new hope for improved patient outcomes in combating this deadly disease.

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Can studying geologic rock formations lead to better treatment for kidney stones?

A recent breakthrough revealing how human kidney stones actually form much the way rocks form in natural environments was made possible by joining Illinois’ geobiology forces with Mayo Clinic’s urology and nephrology expertise. This breakthrough, along with ongoing research in heart, kidney, and breast calcification, may lead to revolutionary treatments for kidney stones and a wide range of diseases. 

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