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Doha – Qatar. \u2014 From AI-powered drug discovery to regenerative therapies and next-generation neurology tools,\u00a0Mayo Clinic<\/a>\u00a0researchers\u00a0made significant strides in 2025 toward predicting,\u00a0preventing\u00a0and\u00a0treating\u00a0some of the world’s most serious and complex diseases.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These discoveries reflect progress across three major innovation\u00a0efforts\u00a0at Mayo Clinic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mayo Clinic clinicians and scientists are working together\u00a0to\u00a0develop tools to predict and intercept biological processes before they evolve into disease or progress into complex, hard-to-treat conditions\u00a0through the\u00a0Precure initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They\u00a0are advancing new cures for end-organ failure beyond traditional transplantation\u00a0as part of the\u00a0Genesis initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They are also uniting clinical insight with\u00a0cutting-edge engineering to deliver novel\u00a0neurological\u00a0diagnostics and therapies through the\u00a0Bioelectronics\u00a0Neuromodulation Innovation to Cure (BIONIC) initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mayo Clinic researchers have created “virtual clinical trials”\u00a0that\u00a0advance\u00a0the discovery of therapies while reducing time,\u00a0cost\u00a0and the risk of failed studies by combining advanced computer modeling with real-world patient data\u00a0as part of the Precure and Genesis initiatives. Through one virtual clinical trial, they have developed a new way to predict whether existing drugs could be repurposed to treat heart failure, one of the world’s most pressing health challenges.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Clinical trials will always remain essential,” says\u00a0Cui\u00a0Tao,\u00a0Ph.D.<\/a>, the Nancy Peretsman and Robert Scully Chair\u00a0of Artificial Intelligence and Informatics and vice president of Mayo Clinic Platform Informatics. “But this innovation demonstrates how AI can make research more efficient, affordable and broadly accessible. Integrating trial emulation, simulation,\u00a0synthetic\u00a0trials\u00a0and biomedical knowledge modeling opens the door to a new paradigm in translational science.”<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mayo Clinic researchers have uncovered the molecular “switch” that directs a small but powerful set of cells that choose\u00a0whether to repair tissue or fight infection, a discovery that could inform regenerative therapies for chronic lung diseases, which is part of Mayo Clinic’s Genesis initiative.<\/p>\n “We were surprised to find that these specialized cells cannot do both jobs at once,” says\u00a0Douglas Brownfield, Ph.D.<\/a>, senior author of the\u00a0study<\/a>. “Some commit to rebuilding, while others focus on defense. That division of labor is essential \u2014 and by uncovering the switch that controls it, we can start thinking about how to restore balance when it breaks down in disease.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mayo Clinic researchers\u00a0found\u00a0that\u00a0injecting\u00a0patients’ own stem cells from fat cells into the vein before hemodialysis, a treatment for end-stage kidney disease, often\u00a0helped prevent inflammation and vein narrowing. This could help millions of people tolerate dialysis longer, extending the time before they\u00a0require\u00a0a kidney transplant as part of the\u00a0Mayo Clinic\u00a0Genesis initiative.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “This approach has the potential to improve outcomes for millions of patients with kidney failure, reduce healthcare costs and inform new clinical guidelines for dialysis access management if\u00a0validated in larger clinical trials,”\u00a0says\u00a0Sanjay Misra, M.D.<\/a>,\u00a0a Mayo Clinic interventional radiologist.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Using detailed maps of\u00a0each\u00a0patient’s unique brain wave patterns, Mayo Clinic physicians can\u00a0now pinpoint\u00a0where stimulation\u00a0is most effective, moving beyond the traditional one-size-fits-all\u00a0approach to\u00a0epilepsy<\/a>\u00a0treatment. This research is\u00a0part\u00a0of\u00a0the BIONIC initiative.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “The long-term goal is to\u00a0quiet\u00a0the seizure network, so it is eventually forgotten. Reorganizing the neuronal network could move us beyond controlling seizures to\u00a0actually curing\u00a0epilepsy,” says\u00a0Nick Gregg, M.D.<\/a>,\u00a0a Mayo Clinic neurologist.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mayo Clinic researchers found when\u00a0meningiomas<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the most common type of brain tumor \u2014\u00a0show\u00a0activity in a gene called telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT),\u00a0it tends to recur more quickly, even if it looks low grade under the microscope. This is part of the\u00a0Mayo Clinic\u00a0Precure initiative.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “High TERT expression is strongly linked to faster disease progression,” says\u00a0Gelareh Zadeh, M.D., Ph.D.<\/a>, a neurosurgeon at Mayo Clinic and senior author of the\u00a0study<\/a>. “This makes it a promising new biomarker for identifying patients who may be at greater risk of developing aggressive disease.”<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mayo Clinic researchers have found that some older people\u00a0maintain\u00a0“immune youth” \u2013 a\u00a0new term coined by Mayo researchers to explain a young immune system in someone over\u00a0age\u00a060.<\/p>\n “We observed that these patients have very young immune systems despite being in their 60s and 70s. But the price they pay\u00a0for that is autoimmunity,” says\u00a0Cornelia Weyand, M.D., Ph.D.<\/a>, a Mayo Clinic rheumatologist and clinician-scientist. This is part of the\u00a0Mayo Clinic\u00a0Precure initiative.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Mayo Clinic researchers have developed new tools to\u00a0estimate a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease<\/a>\u00a0years before symptoms appear as part of the Precure initiative and to help clinicians\u00a0identify brain activity patterns linked to nine types of dementia<\/a>, including Alzheimer’s disease, using one scan. They also confirmed the accuracy of an FDA-approved blood test that can be used at outpatient memory clinics to\u00a0diagnose the disease in patients with a range of cognitive impairment<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Every patient who walks into my clinic carries a unique story shaped by the brain’s complexity,” says\u00a0David T. Jones, M.D.<\/a>, a Mayo Clinic neurologist and director of the Mayo Clinic Neurology<\/p>\n Artificial Intelligence Program. “That complexity drew me to neurology and continues to drive my commitment to clearer answers.”<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nearly half of all women in the U.S. have dense breast tissue, which can make detecting breast cancer difficult with a mammogram.\u00a0Mayo Clinic researchers found that adding another test, called molecular breast imaging, or MBI, to a 3D\u00a0mammogram,\u00a0improved the ability to find cancer in dense tissue by more than double.<\/p>\n “Our research focuses on detecting the\u00a0most lethal\u00a0cancers, which can include invasive tumors that grow quickly. If these are detected earlier,\u00a0we\u00a0likely\u00a0can\u00a0save more lives,” says\u00a0Carrie Hruska, Ph.D.<\/a>,\u00a0a\u00a0Mayo Clinic\u00a0professor of medical physics and\u00a0lead author of the\u00a0study<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n After\u00a0identifying\u00a0a sugar molecule that cancer cells\u00a0use on their surfaces to hide from the immune system, Mayo Clinic researchers have\u00a0found\u00a0the same molecule may eventually help in the treatment of\u00a0type 1 diabetes<\/a>, once known as juvenile diabetes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “A goal would be to provide transplantable cells without the need for immunosuppression,” says\u00a0Virginia Shapiro, Ph.D.<\/a>, a Mayo Clinic immunology researcher. “Though we’re still in the early stages, this\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0may be one step toward improving care.”<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mayo Clinic researchers and collaborators have described \u2014 for the first time \u2014 the prevalence of autoimmune diseases in the U.S. Their research reports that about\u00a015 million people\u00a0are estimated to have one or more of 105 autoimmune diseases. The study also found that autoimmune diseases occur most often in women, and it identified the top autoimmune diseases by prevalence, sex and age.<\/p>\n “Knowing the number of patients with an autoimmune disease in the U.S. is critical to assess whether these diseases are increasing or decreasing over time and with treatment,” says\u00a0DeLisa Fairweather, Ph.D.<\/a>,\u00a0vice-chair of translational research for the\u00a0Department of Cardiovascular Medicine\u00a0at Mayo Clinic in Florida and corresponding author of the\u00a0study<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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