blog posts

• Exploring the Mayo Clinic Undergraduate Research Experience

  Sep 26, 2023 3:15 pm5 views

• Carle, Illinois, and Mayo Clinic researchers advance breast cancer imaging device, supported by new NIH grant

  Oct 18, 2021 11:45 am2 views

  A Carle Illinois College of Medicine research team is developing a new device that will improve the management of breast cancer using ultrasound imaging.  The team has innovated new radiological clips that will increase visibility during imaging, reduce levels of radiation, and offer other new capabilities not previously available.

• New tool improves accuracy, customization in DNA sequencing capabilities

  Oct 4, 2021 11:45 am0 views

  DNA analysis may open the door to scientists unlocking the mysteries of disease, among other breakthroughs. This analysis often includes identifying variants in DNA sequences – known as variant calling – which has a wide range of applications in bioinformatics and genomics, from discovering a person’s susceptibility to cancer to strategizing crop-breeding methods.

• AI in Cancer Research: Applications of Computational Genomics

  Sep 29, 2021 11:00 am0 views

  In bioinformatics, machine learning (ML) tools are used to solve problems in molecular biology and genetics. In healthy cells, genes — the carriers of hereditary information — are switched “on” or “off” to carry out specific tasks. Bioinformatics researchers can decode DNA using artificial intelligence (AI) to understand why some of these switches occur inappropriately, leading to disease.

• How SNPs can be used to detect disease pathways

  Sep 27, 2021 11:00 am0 views

  Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a new computational tool that can identify pathways related to diseases, including breast and prostate cancer, using single-nucleotide polymorphisms. SNPs, which refer to mutations in a person’s DNA, are the most common type of genetic variation among people. The researchers hope that the tool can help them discover new pathways that have been previously overlooked.

• CCIL 2021 Seed Awards Support Collaborative Cancer Research

  Jun 17, 2021 11:00 am0 views

  Nine interdisciplinary projects designed by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty were selected for the Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) annual seed grant awards. Since launching in 2019, CCIL seed grant funding has supported interdisciplinary cancer research projects that facilitate cross-campus collaboration. Previous grant projects have led to a number of additional external funding opportunities, including a recent $1.25M NIH grant to further explore breast cancer progression.

• Researchers develop new technique to study "microcancers" and screen cancer-fighting drugs

  Apr 23, 2021 1:00 pm2 views

  Three-dimensional microscale hanging drop arrays are useful in drug discovery, regenerative medicine, stem cell research, and biotechnology.

• New computational models to understand colon cancer

  Mar 29, 2021 3:30 pm2 views

  A team from Illinois & Mayo Clinic have developed a new technique for creating “microcancer” cell cultures. It allows researchers to form hundreds of microcancers in a high-throughput format enabling direct measurement of cell health or response to drugs.

• Knowledge Engine is ready to accelerate genomic research

  Jan 31, 2020 8:30 am0 views

  Illinois and Mayo Clinic collaborate to lead NIH funded Big Data to Knowledge Center of Excellence.

• Student improves bioinformatics software to better analyze human DNA

  Jan 21, 2020 8:30 am0 views

  Coordinated Science Lab graduate student Zachary Stephens is changing the way medical experts examine and analyze this vast amount of DNA in the human body, ultimately contributing to the trajectory toward individualized medicine.

• Getting Personal: Elena Wilson

  Dec 15, 2019 8:30 am46 views

  An interview with University of Illinois senior, Elena Wilson, about her internships at Mayo Clinic and the Yale School of Medicine.

• AI System Works with Physicians to Identify the Most Helpful Treatments for People Diagnosed with Depression

  Dec 6, 2019 8:30 am2 views

  The Fall 2019 issue of Mayo Clinic Magazine features Illinois alum Arjun Athreya, the inaugural doctoral graduate of the Mayo Clinic and University of Illinois Alliance for Technology-Based Healthcare Fellowship program.

• Krannert offering free dance-based classes for those with Parkinson’s

  Nov 12, 2019 8:30 am0 views

  People with Parkinson’s disease can take part in free monthly dance-based classes at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Studies have shown dance can have therapeutic benefits for people with Parkinson’s, a progressive nervous system disease affecting movement. The local Dance for People with Parkinson’s program is in its 10th year.

• CSL researchers develop tools to aid in Alzheimer's diagnosis and prognosis

  Nov 11, 2019 8:30 am0 views

  Alzheimer’s Disease has long stumped the medical community. A team of Illinois researchers, including 3 Mayo-Clinic and Illinois Alliance for Technology Based Healthcare fellows, is working to create tools that could help improve the diagnosis of the illness and produce more accurate prognoses.

• Preparing the workforce of the future: students work side-by-side with Mayo researchers and physicians

  Nov 4, 2019 8:30 am0 views

  Ten Illinois students came to Mayo Clinic through the Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance for Technology-Based Healthcare. Each student was matched with research mentors whose research is supported in part by Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine.

• How machine learning is crafting precision medicine

  Feb 11, 2019 1:15 pm0 views

  Dr. Liewei Wang of the Mayo Clinic, along with a team of researchers that includes members of the department of computer science at Illinois, developed a machine learning algorithm to predict whether a psychiatrist should prescribe a certain drug to a depression patient based on that patient’s unique medical record.

• A Life Changing Collaboration

  Nov 25, 2018 4:15 pm0 views

  The Fighting Illini men's basketball team will host their Epilepsy Awareness game on Sunday. The game will help bring awareness to an illness that does not receive a lot of funding and does not have as much awareness as other neurological illnesses.

• Novel quantum dots enhance cell imaging

  Oct 28, 2018 10:15 am0 views

  A team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Mayo Clinic have engineered a new type of molecular probe that can measure and count RNA in cells and tissue without organic dyes.

• Researchers develop “cytological ruler” to build 3D map of human genome

  Aug 29, 2018 3:00 pm1 views

  It has been almost 20 years since the human genome was first sequenced, but researchers still know little about how the genome is folded up and organized within cells.

• New Informatics Tool Makes the Most of Genomic Data

  Jul 11, 2018 4:00 pm0 views

  A new computational tool developed through a collaboration between the University of Illinois and Mayo Clinic combines multiple types of genomic information to make stronger predictions about what genomic features are associated with specific drug responses.

• New NIH-funded Research Aims to Improve Prostate Cancer Outcomes

  Mar 28, 2018 5:00 pm0 views

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers recently received a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a new assay technology that could determine the effectiveness of cancer drug treatments and aid in disease prognosis.

• Graduate Student Uses AI to Advance Epilepsy Research

  Feb 7, 2018 11:45 am0 views

  Artificial intelligence may be the next great medical tool for those with epilepsy, according to a research project done by Ph.D. candidate Yogatheesan Varatharajah.

• Research identifying extracellular matrix biomarkers may lead to targeted lung cancer therapies

  Feb 7, 2018 11:30 am2 views

  Working with researchers at the Mayo Clinic, Illinois Bioengineering Assistant Professor Gregory Underhill have developed an engineering-based tool that helps unravel the extracellular matrix' (ECMs) composition and underlying mechanisms that enable cancer to spread and become resistant to chemotherapy and other treatments.

• Novel Chip-based Gene Expression Tool Analyzes RNA Quickly and Accurately

  Jan 16, 2018 12:00 pm0 views

  A University of Illinois and Mayo Clinic collaboration has demonstrated a novel gene expression analysis technique that can accurately measure levels of RNA quickly and directly from a cancerous tissue sample while preserving the spatial information across the tissue—something that conventional methods cannot do.

• Illinois and Mayo Clinic Team up to Develop Improved Method to Identify Seizure-causing Regions in the Brain

  Jan 10, 2018 12:00 pm2 views

  Yogatheesan (Yoga) Varatharajah and Ravi Iyer and collaborators from Mayo Clinic have developed a method to help doctors quickly identify the part of brain causing a patient’s epilepsy.

• Educating the Next Generation of Innovators to Usher in the Genomic Age of Medicine

  Jul 10, 2017 9:30 am2 views

  Bright and eager minds are being primed to tackle the big data challenge that comes with genomic medicine. The Computational Genomics class, a collaboration between Mayo Clinic and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is aimed at developing a workforce with skills to more quickly, cheaply, and efficiently analyze, interpret, and apply DNA test results to patient care.

• Arjun Athreya Investigates Biological Markers of Disease, Including Triple Negative Breast Cancer

  May 5, 2017 1:00 pm0 views

  Big data analytics has endless possibilities in health care. Through data analysis, scientists can determine subtypes of diseases, as well as how drug treatments will influence individual patient prognoses.

• Alliance Fellow Arjun Athreya Wins Awards at ASCPT

  Mar 30, 2017 4:30 pm0 views

  At the recent annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT), Arjun Athreya brought home more than one award.

• The Knowledge Engine for Genomics Gains Momentum

  Aug 31, 2016 2:45 pm0 views

  Across the Midwest, summer is the season of growth. For KnowEnG, a Center of Excellence established by an NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Initiative award to the University of Illinois in partnership with the Mayo Clinic, this summer’s activities have highlighted both how much has already been accomplished in the past two years and the promise of its newest directions.

• Mayo Clinic to be Home of National Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Cohort Program Biobank

  May 26, 2016 2:15 pm0 views

  Mayo Clinic will be awarded $142 million in funding over five years by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to serve as the national Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Cohort Program biobank.

• Research By The Numbers: The Power of Data to Transform Individualized Medicine

  Aug 13, 2015 3:00 pm0 views

  The Center for Individualized Medicine and the University of Illinois are teaming up to translate data-heavy genomics research into customized clinical care.

• Young Researchers Catching Waves with Mayo Clinic SURF Program

  Jul 21, 2015 1:00 pm2 views

  MDs, PhDs, MD-PhDs, PharmDs. Scan a list of Mayo Clinic researchers, and you might mistake it for alphabet soup.

• Uncovering Alzheimer's Complex Genetic Networks

  Feb 3, 2015 4:15 pm0 views

  Researchers from the Mayo Clinic use NSF-supported Blue Waters supercomputer to understand gene expression in the brain.

• University of Illinois collaborates with Mayo Clinic to Revolutionize Genomic Data Analysis

  Oct 9, 2014 2:00 pm0 views

  Today’s researchers, working with the advantages of new, sophisticated laboratory technology, have unleashed a river of valuable biomedical data—much more, in fact, than many of them have the tools to properly analyze, or the capacity to store.  In 2012, the National Institutes of Health created the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) initiative to enable efforts to harness the potential of this flood of information.  As part of the first wave of BD2K funding, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Mayo Clinic have now received a $9.34M, 4-year award to create one of several new Centers of Excellence for Big Data Computing.

• UI, Mayo Clinic get $2.2M for Research on Ultrasound, Breast Cancer Diagnosis

  Mar 19, 2013 1:00 pm0 views

  Research team receives five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the role of tissue elasticity in breast cancer diagnosis.

• Mayo Clinic and Illinois Researchers Develop New Sensor for Methylated DNA

  Mar 12, 2013 4:15 pm0 views

  Collaborators from Mayo-Illinois Alliance for Technology Based Healthcare have developed a new, single molecule assay for detecting methylated DNA—a naturally occurring process that controls the gene expression.

• Sick from your Stomach: Gut Bacteria May Trigger Diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis

  Jun 11, 2012 1:45 pm0 views

  The billions of bugs in our guts have a newfound role: regulating the immune system and related autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, according to researchers at Mayo Clinic and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

• NCSA, Mayo Clinic Explore Techniques to Visualize Genetic Information for Clinicians

  Feb 28, 2011 10:30 am0 views

  Biomedical researchers are generating a tremendous amount of genomic data about cancer, which has the potential to improve clinicians' ability to diagnose, treat and prevent the disease.

• Microbiome May Hold Key to Better Understanding of Preterm Birth

  Oct 1, 2010 3:15 pm0 views

  A team of scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Mayo Clinic and the J. Craig Venter Institute are leveraging a long-standing research relationship to apply results from the Human Microbiome Project to help identify microbial risk predictors for preterm birth.