blog navigation

blog posts

  • Abigail Asangba Photo

    Illinois student earns postdoctoral fellowship after completing an Alliance-sponsored internship

    After completing a summer internship at Mayo Clinic and earning her PhD in Biological Anthropology from Illinois, Abigail Asangba will join the Mayo Clinic staff as a postdoctoral research associate in January 2020.  

  • Introducing the 11 Illinois students selected as Mayo Clinic's 2021 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows

    Each year, Mayo Clinic invites around 180 undergraduates from across the nation to participate in their Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. Sponsored by the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, this 10-week program gives undergraduates a chance to work at the forefront of biomedical research at one of the world’s leading medical centers. Students work in the laboratories of Mayo Clinic faculty on small research projects or as part of ongoing investigations, attend weekly seminars, and get to test their inclinations toward a career in biomedical research.

  • Record Number of Illinois Students Accepted into Mayo Clinic SURF Program

    During summer 2018, fourteen Illinois undergrads will be conducting research in Mayo Clinic labs—a record for number of Illinois students in a given year.

  • Illinois students explore health care innovation

    The course is typically open to Mayo Clinic students, physicians, scientists, fellows or residents enrolled in certain programs. Mayo Clinic made the opportunity available to U of I students as part of the Alliance’s effort to explore expanded educational and cocurricular opportunities in entrepreneurship and health care innovation.

  • Illinois students selected to advance team science with positions at Mayo Clinic

    Recently, two Illinois students were selected to advance their education and careers at Mayo Clinic. Taylor Crooks, a molecular and cellular biology undergraduate student at Illinois, trained at Mayo Clinic as part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. He will be continuing his work as a doctoral student in the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Science. Arjun Athreya, a doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering, participated in the Technology-Based Healthcare Fellowship at Mayo Clinic. He will be taking a faculty position at Mayo Clinic in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

  • Introducing the 10 Illinois students selected as Mayo Clinic's 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows

    Each year, Mayo Clinic invites undergraduates from across the nation to participate in their Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. As part of our longstanding collaboration, Mayo Clinic reserves seven spots each year for Illinois students chosen by the Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance pre-selection committee. This year, we are proud to announce that 10 Illinois students are headed to Rochester, MN to participate in the 2022 SURF program. 

  • 2019 SURF Experience: Danielle Yee

    Danielle Yee was among seven of Illinois' brightest undergraduates who participated in Mayo Clinic’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) this past summer. The Alliance's commitment to this educational program continues to be a popular, competitive opportunity for Illinois students.

  • A World in a Grain of Sand: New Discoveries in Kidney Stones

    Learn about the fascinating research that uncovered “a world in a grain of sand” with the Mayo Clinic Heritage Film featuring Mayo Clinic and University of Illinois collaborators. 

  • 2018 SURF Experience: Omar Kashow

    Fourteen of Illinois' best and brightest undergraduates spent the summer of 2018 as research fellows at Mayo Clinic as part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program. The Alliance's commitment to this educational program continues to be a popular, competitive opportunity for Illinois students.

    Omar Kashow, now a senior in the Bioengineering department at Illinois, spent his summer as a SURF at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, in the Cancer Research and Nanotechnology department. 

  • Illinois undergraduates get real-world research experience at Mayo Clinic

    This year, 11 outstanding Illinois undergraduates participated in the SURF program. The fellows were given the opportunity to present their Mayo Clinic research projects and share their program experiences during a virtual celebration in September.

  • Two Illinois SURF students co-author publications under mentorship of alumnus Arjun Athreya

  • Introducing the ten Illinois undergrads selected as 2023 Mayo Clinic Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows

  • Alliance fellow to join Mayo Clinic Department of Health Sciences Research

    Dan Wickland, who recently completed his Technology-Based Health Care Research Fellowship and earned his doctorate in Bioinformatics, has accepted a position as a research associate at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida. During his fellowship, Wickland worked with Mayo Clinic and Illinois researchers to analyze genomic sequencing data of more than 10,000 cases and healthy controls from the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP). Wickland will soon join Mayo Clinic’s Department of Health Sciences Research, where he will continue to work with fellowship adviser Yan Asmann, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical informatics at Mayo Clinic, on a project with Mark Sherman, M.D., professor of epidemiology and laboratory medicine and pathology at Mayo Clinic, that focuses on breast cancer immunogenomics.

  • The 2022 Illinois SURF cohort pose around the Mayo Brothers statue outside Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN

    Illinois undergrads share their Mayo Clinic research experience

    At the end of the 2022 program, the fellows shared why they applied to the SURF program, the impact of the experience on their academic or career goals, and advice for future participants in the program. To view photos and learn what the fellows had to say about their summer undergraduate research experience at Mayo Clinic, watch the video.

  • Collaborative efforts produce clinical workflows for rapid genetic analysis

    Mayo Clinic and Illinois collaborators have developed a highly efficient workflow that will allow for rapid genetic analysis and better treatment plans for Mayo Clinic patients.

  • Meet our Technology-Based Healthcare Research Fellows

    The Technology-Based Healthcare Fellowship provides a unique opportunity for Illinois graduate students to work collaboratively with Mayo Clinic researchers and clinicians on a translational research project aimed at developing new technologies and clinical tools. To get the most from the experience, fellows are encouraged to spend one year at Illinois and one year at Mayo Clinic. In January, the Alliance will welcome its twelfth fellow to participate in this unique program.

    Meet the current fellows and learn a bit more about the cutting-edge research they are conducting in collaboration with University of Illinois and Mayo Clinic researchers and clinicians.    

     

     

  • Mentee to mentor: Bioengineering professor Yoga Varatharajah mentors two students through Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance education programs

  • Visual Analytics for Precision Medicine - Research Collaboration Highlight

  • Alliance Introduces New Graduate Fellowship Program

    This spring, the Mayo Clinic and Illinois Alliance launched a new graduate fellowship program. The Fellowships for Technology-Based Healthcare Research will provide a unique opportunity for PhD students to work on a collaborative project between Mayo Clinic and Illinois with one year of the fellowship spent on the Mayo Clinic campus.

  • Bryan White Photo

    How Bryan White drove innovation through collaboration

    After a decade of helping to build the Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance into the robust partnership it is today, Director Bryan White will retire on February 29. A few of his colleagues reflected on his incredible impact on individual researchers, on the Alliance as a whole, and on the two partner organizations over the last ten years in this short tribute.

  • Meet Margret Berg Miller, Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance Co-Coordinator

    If you have been involved with the Alliance in any way, no doubt you have interacted with Maggie on some level. Here’s a bit of insight into Maggie’s background and how she supports Alliance students and researchers in the clinical research space.

  • Dr. Nicholas Chia: Modeling an Innovative Research Alliance

    Meet Nicholas Chia, PhD, University of Illinois postdoc fellow turned associate director of Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine's Microbiome Program and Department of Surgery consultant. 

  • How SNPs can be used to detect disease pathways

    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.

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

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

  • Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance welcomes new Technology-Based Healthcare Fellow

  • Update: Biomarker Discovery Challenge Projects

    In 2014, the Mayo Clinic and Illinois Alliance awarded seed funding to fourcollaborative research teams to address three grand challenges related tobiomarker discovery. Two projects have reached their conclusion within theseed program, and the Mayo Clinic and Illinois investigators are now usingthe data generated to expand their research.

  • Alliance Builds IT and Bioinformatics Internship Pipeline

    Biomedical informatics, or bioinformatics, is an umbrella term for all the biological studies that utilize computer programming as part of their methodology. It combines computer science, statistics, mathematics, and engineering to interpret biological data.

  • Research Collaboration Highlight: Epigenomics

    The collaboration between Ryan Bailey, PhD, and Tamas Ordog, MD, began in 2012 when Professor Bailey visited the Mayo Clinic on behalf of the Mayo Clinic and Illinois Alliance. At the time, Dr. Ordog was facing a challenge performing epigenomic analysis on small cell populations and he and Bailey started to discuss microfluidic approaches that might be enabling for these applications.

  • KBase: Coming to Illinois

    KBase enables researchers to collaboratively generate,test, and share newhypotheses about geneand protein functions.

  • Faced with a pandemic, undergraduate research programs innovate and evolve

    Disruptions due to COVID-19 didn't deter undergraduates committed to a summer of research training in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) and Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) at Mayo Clinic. Instead, they learned to thrive in a virtual environment and even presented their scientific posters online. Illinois student Elizabeth Martin presented a poster about her summer research experience, which focused on DNA barcoding.

  • Biomarker Projects Awarded Seed Funding

    The Mayo Clinic and Illinois Alliance has awarded funding to these four collaborative research proposals that originated from teh Biomarker Discovery Workshop earlier this year. Each project addresses on of the three challenges.

  • Talented Trio Comprises the First Group of Technology-Based Healthcare Research Fellows

  • Mentoring at Mayo Clinic Important for Illinois Community Health PhD Students

    Alliance connects clinical and translational research opportunities for lllinois Department of Community Health PhD students.

  • Seed Funding Awarded: Mayo Clinic and Illinois Strategic Alliance for Technology-Based Healthcare

    The Mayo Clinic and Illinois Alliance has awarded seed funding to four collaborative Mayo Clinic and Illinois research teams. Proposals were submitted in response to a call that was issued in conjunction with the Pharmacogenomics Workshop held in January 2013, and these proposals were selected from a pool of highly competitive applicants.

  • Mayo Clinic, University of Illinois Form Research Alliance

    The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Mayo Clinic are forming a strategic alliance designed to promote a broad spectrum of collaborative research, the development of new technologies and clinical tools, and the design and implementation of novel education programs. Officials from the university and the clinic recently signed an agreement establishing the formal relationship.

  • Digital image of a human brain

    Mayo Clinic algorithm shows potential in individualizing treatment for depression

    A computer algorithm developed by researchers within Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign could help clinicians accurately and efficiently predict whether a patient with depression will respond to an antidepressant. 

  • Project Update: Researchers Aim to Use the Microbiome to Predict Weight Loss Success

    Obesity is a major public health issue in much of the developed world. It’s well known that a healthy diet and regular exercise are key to losing weight, but there is another factor that may be just as influential—our microbiome.

  • Update: Microbiome Characteristics Determined in Healthy Pregnancies

    Study lays groundwork for connecting vaginal microbiome abnormalities to pregnancy complications.

  • Graduate Students Spend Spring Break at Mayo Clinic

    The typical Spring Break: sunshine and sandy beaches, ski slopes, or anything but work. Not the case for three Medical Scholars Program (MSP) students from Illinois, who spent an a-typical Spring Break shadowing clinician researchers at Mayo Clinic.

  • New computational models to understand colon cancer

    Although the development of secondary cancerous growths, called metastasis, is the primary cause of death in most cancers, the cellular changes that drive it are poorly understood. In a new study, published in Genome Biology, researchers at Mayo Clinic and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a new modeling approach to better understand how tumors become aggressive.

     

  • Geology helps map kidney stone formation from tiny to troublesome

    Advanced microscope technology and cutting-edge geological science are giving new perspectives to an old medical mystery: How do kidney stones form, why are some people more susceptible to them and can they be prevented?

  • (Bio)Marking New Territory in Precision Medicine

    The Biomarker Discovery Workshop, supported by the Mayo Clinic and Illinois Alliance, brought together researchers from both institutions with a mission to expand upon existing biomarker identification.

  • High Tech, High Touch

    Computational Genomics Course immerses participants in this emerging field.

  • Preparing the Next Generation – Interns Engaged in Precision Medicine Research

    When Zachary Stephens started his summer internship at Mayo Clinic in 2013, he was thrust into a world where solving big data challenges can lead to more individualized care for patients. 

  • What do Yellowstone rocks teach us about kidney stones?

    Mayo Clinic and Illinois researchers are turning to Yellowstone National Park to unlock the secrets of kidney stones.

  • New research uses signal processing methods and machine learning to better diagnose epilepsy

    Illinois researchers, in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, have developed a machine-learning-based approach that uses alpha-rhythm-related features to determine the potential for epilepsy and identify the seizure-generating side of the patient's brain. The results were reported in a paper titled, "Electrophysiological correlates of brain health help diagnose epilepsy and lateralize seizure focus". Yogatheesan Varatharajah, the first author of this paper, was named a finalist in the 2020 Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Student Paper Competition, chosen from over 1000 submissions. Varatharajah is a graduate of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois and will be joining the department of bioengineering as a research faculty this summer. 

  • Agenda available for Computational, Data, & Digital Approaches to Advance Health

    Computational, Data, and Digital Approaches to Advance Health will highlight the expertise at Illinois in the applications to health and medicine of AI, machine learning, deep learning, computational imaging, computational genomics, big data and data analytics, and other computational/digital approaches.

  • Genomics and computer science intersect to improve patient care

    Computational genomics is a field that brings high-performance computing resources to drive precision medicine research toward new discoveries. However, when over 50 Mayo Clinic physicians, researchers and students gathered in June to participate in the Computational Genomics Course, the emphasis was on the needs of the patient.

  • Artificial Intelligence: Will a Machine Pick your Next Medication?

    The Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine is collaborating with the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to unleash the potential of artificial intelligence in patient care. Funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, the Mayo Clinic and University of Illinois Alliance and corporate partners are conducting research into the big data challenge: how to develop computer systems that, combined with human intelligence, unlock new analysis of health and disease.

  • Promising diagnostics for detecting latent tuberculosis revealed

    A collaboration between the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of IllinoisMayo Clinic, and the University of Michigan are introducing a new machine-learning-driven approach to latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) diagnostics. While leveraging a high throughput detection technology and powerful bioinformatics, this approach aims to reveal multi-marker signatures for LTBI diagnosis and risk stratification.