Biology in Three Dimensions

After doing his medical training in his native country of Hungary, Dr. Ordog studied neuroendocrine biology, touching on topics like electrical signals in the hypothalamus regulating the menstrual cycle. He started as a junior faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno, before coming to Mayo Clinic in 2006. In 2012, he helped found the Epigenomics Program at the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine. In 2020, he moved to work with the Center for Cell Signaling in Gastroenterology.

Now he and Jeong-Heon Lee, Ph.D., are hard at work creating a first-of-its-kind research enterprise: a core dedicated entirely to spatial biology.

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“‘Spatial’ is a little bit of a misleading term,” says Dr. Ordog, “because currently almost everything we do is in two dimensions [like flat X-rays of body parts], but there is no theoretical limit to why anything we discover doesn’t apply in 3D.”

Spatial biology is essentially what it sounds like: the study of tissues, cells and genes put into terms of how they relate to each other in three dimensions. Think of an organ or a tumor as a complex city, where each cell is a building with its own role and relationships to its neighbors. Some cells might be driving a disease, while others are trying to fight it off. Traditional methods could tell us what types of buildings existed in the city, but not how they are arranged or how they influence each other. Spatial biology changes that by creating a detailed 3D map of every cell in a tissue sample, showing not just what genes each cell is expressing, but how those cells work together — or against each other — in the complex ecosystem of a complete tissue.

The Perfect Partnership

Drs. Ordog and Lee make a top-notch team. Dr. Ordog brought Dr. Lee, then a postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University, to Mayo Clinic to tune the technology he developed there toward human health applications. Dr. Lee’s primary focus now is an area called spatial transcriptomics, studying how gene expression in one cell affects gene expression in its neighbors.

“The ultimate goal is to build a 3D model of any tissue we study, providing information about how the cells are positioned relative to each other and how they behave — as in what genes and molecules they express,” says Dr. Ordog.

Molecules and genes are just the beginning. To Drs. Lee and Ordog, spatial biology isn’t just about the relationship between cells in one modality, but in all the ways they can relate to one another — their genes, their proteins, the ways they contact one another, cells dividing in one region and dying in another. Dr. Ordog calls this “spatial multiomics,” combining different techniques in the same space.

“We want these to be more than the sum of their modalities,” says Dr. Ordog. “The goal is to bring all these elements — the study of genes, molecules, proteins, etc. — into all relevant tissues.”

The Power of Spatial Multiomics

Bringing together all these different scientific threads will help Mayo Clinic do something completely unprecedented: create a whole new kind of pathology.

“Spatial biology shortens the translational pipeline,” says Dr. Ordog. Rather than needing to start with preclinical models, doctors and researchers can now start primary discovery with a tissue biopsy or surgical materials directly from a patient. They are looking for the needle in the haystack that might lead to a new discovery or therapy. 

The bottom line is that we want to increase the amount of information gathered from the precious biopsy material taken from our patients.

— Tamas Ordog, M.D.

“That’s what modern biology has enabled. You can pick out your molecule of interest based on whatever you’re studying,” says Dr. Lee. “You can study diseased versus not-diseased tissues. Say you discover molecules in diseased state that aren’t in healthy tissues, that’s your target.” Then scientists can go back to the lab and examine what they’ve discovered in other models to look for treatment options, armed with the knowledge that what they have found is directly involved in a patient’s health.

From Lab to Clinic

Dr. Ordog envisions a “virtual patient vignette”: A patient comes in with a form of cancer that comes in multiple forms, each with different prognoses, signs of progression and immune cell profiles, and each responds to different therapies. In the past this would be a dizzying knot to untie, but with spatial multiomics, it becomes clearer. A biopsy taken from the patient is serially chopped into sections, each of which gets processed a different way. Then the data is put back together into a three-dimensional image.

Instead of trying different therapies to see what works, clinicians could use this approach to examine the tumor's cellular architecture and predict which treatment would be most effective, saving precious time in the fight against cancer.

“The bottom line is that we want to increase the amount of information gathered from the precious biopsy material taken from our patients,” says Dr. Ordog. “Spatial biology can increase the understanding that comes out of the tissue exponentially.” That, in turn, can allow for in-depth machine learning and artificial intelligence analysis of patient data, which Dr. Ordog hopes to test sometime in the future.

All in all, Dr. Ordog, Dr. Lee and the entire team are hopeful their work will simplify the detective work that doctors and patients often experience when hunting for a diagnosis or treatment. Looking over a slide deck he uses to explain the technology, Dr. Ordog sounds a hopeful note.

“We can find the needle in the haystack without having to grind all the hay up.”

The post Reconstructing a Tumor Cell by Cell appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Now, thanks to an innovative technology known as spatial transcriptomics, Mayo Clinic experts are able to examine how genes are expressed in a tissue sample in three dimensions, providing unprecedented insights into cellular relationships and tissue structure.

Understanding ‘Omics’

“Omics” is a term used to describe the collective study of biological molecules, from genes to proteins and beyond. Transcriptomics specifically refers to the study of gene expression — how our genetic code, or DNA, gets transcribed into RNA, which is then used to build proteins.

Understanding gene expression can help scientists better understand human biology by providing insights into where and when genes are turned on and off during development and disease. This is important for knowing how different cells function and how they interact with one another in the healthy body, as well as what changes when someone gets sick. Transcriptomics can be especially helpful for identifying biomarkers of disease, which can aid in diagnosis and treatment.

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Traditionally, transcriptomics is focused on understanding the overall gene expression within a tissue — for example, a researcher might examine the gene expression of healthy pancreatic tissue and compare it to the gene expression in a pancreatic cancer tumor, or even how a single cancer cell compares to a single healthy one. But these approaches do not preserve organizational information about how genes are expressed in different areas of a tissue or a tumor, or whether there might be variations in that expression across a sample.

A New View Through Spatial Transcriptomics

Spatial transcriptomics is radically advancing our understanding of biology thanks to the fact that with this technology researchers can see not just what genes are being expressed, but exactly where a gene is active within a tissue. This means that scientists can examine the gene expression within individual cells while preserving the broader context of how those cells are interacting with their neighbors.

This feat is accomplished through tissue preservation and microscopy techniques that maintain the tissue’s structure while measuring the expression of many different genes across the sample. This produces a detailed map of how different cells are behaving and communicating within, for example, a biopsy from a cancerous tumor.

In cancer, this is particularly impactful because it means that researchers and pathologists can now see exactly where certain genes are active within a tumor, allowing for a clearer picture of the molecular dynamics of the disease and opening new avenues for treatment.

Pioneering the Future

Mayo Clinic’s investment in spatial biology is another step toward truly personalized medicine. Led by Tamas Ordog, M.D., and Jeong-Heon Lee, Ph.D., a team of Mayo Clinic scientists are building a first-of-its-kind research core dedicated entirely to spatial biology, beginning with spatial transcriptomics. Supported by machine learning and artificial intelligence tools that analyze the 3D data generated from patient samples, they say this tool will reimagine how diseases are classified and treated.

This technology is already transforming how Mayo Clinic approaches complex cancers, as researchers work to create new ways to examine biopsy samples to predict which therapies will be most effective based on a tumor's unique cellular architecture and molecular signatures.

As the spatial biology technique develops, the team plans to build detailed tissue atlases to map the progression of various diseases in unprecedented detail, potentially revealing early intervention points and novel therapeutic targets that would otherwise remain hidden in the complex biology of human disease.

The post What Is Spatial Transcriptomics? appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

The Lifesaving Power of Paired Liver Donation

At any given time, there are approximately 10,000 people in the U.S. who are on the waiting list for a liver transplant. For patients who have end-stage liver failure, their only treatment option is usually transplantation. Approximately 20% of people on the list will die waiting for a transplant.

Transplants from living donors are an option, thanks to the liver’s unique ability to regenerate itself within a month, but just 6% of liver transplants occur this way. Following Mayo Clinic’s first-ever paired living liver donation, the surgeons are hopeful that more patients can be saved in the future.

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Paired living donations most often occur because a potential liver donor wants to give to a family member or friend but is not the best match. In that case, a paired donation is considered, with the would-be donor giving to another patient while a second donor gives to the family member or friend in need.

Mayo’s first paired living liver donation was conducted in Rochester, with a team led by Timucin Taner, M.D., Ph.D., division chair of Transplant Surgery.

“Sadly, there are not enough donated livers available for everyone who needs one,” Dr. Taner says. “That is why living liver donation is so important.”

Paired living donations are commonly used for kidney transplants but are rare for liver transplants. Only a handful of transplant centers in the U.S. offer paired liver donations because of the logistical challenges. The procedure requires a large healthcare team of nurse coordinators, physicians, social workers and others who can match patients — as well as surgical teams to carefully coordinate.

The post The Lifesaving Power of Paired Liver Donation appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Through her groundbreaking Fostering African-American Improvement in Total Health (FAITH!) program at Mayo Clinic, she partners with Black churches to combat cardiovascular health disparities. She has focused her clinical practice and research on making preventive care more accessible and effective for all patients. She sat down with Mayo Clinic Magazine to share her connection to her work.

Growing up, you witnessed firsthand how cardiovascular disease affected your church community. Can you take us back to a specific moment or experience that first sparked your interest in becoming a cardiologist?

The African American church was the foundation of my upbringing in Charlotte, North Carolina. I saw so many people passing away from preventable diseases like heart disease and stroke. It was devastating to see these people who had helped to raise me pass away so early.

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One of the key moments that I remember was when our pastor passed away as a result of diseases that could have been prevented if he’d had the right care and resources. He was the shepherd of the flock, and there was an immediate change in the atmosphere within the church without its leader. I have carried that moment with me. I still honor our pastor, and I hope that I’m honoring him by giving back and making sure we combat the health disparities that affect the community.

You’ve pioneered innovative approaches to community health. What inspired you to create the FAITH! program, and how has it transformed cardiovascular care in underserved communities?

During my public health studies at Johns Hopkins University, I took a course that charged us with coming up with a way to influence health disparities and to promote health within the surrounding Baltimore, Maryland, community. It was a group project, and we jointly created the FAITH! program. We said, “What’s the institution that has been here for centuries that has had the most influence on this population?” and it was the Black church. And we said, “Why don’t we come up with a program that partners with a Black church that can then promote heart health?”

We can seize this moment to have an impact on communities that have been historically overlooked.

— LaPRINCESS BREWER, M.D., M.P.H.

That’s how FAITH! was born. We approached a church that was a stone’s throw away from Johns Hopkins to see if they would be interested in partnering with us. I was able to expand FAITH! to Minnesota when I started my cardiology fellowship at Mayo Clinic, and it has continued to flourish.

Could you tell us about your vision for the future of preventive cardiology? How might your current work addressing health disparities help shape that future?

I’m truly amazed at the advances we’ve had throughout my career in managing chronic diseases and cardiovascular disease risk factors. I am really looking forward to further innovations through technology, including mobile health, wearables and artificial intelligence that can address many of those risk factors early on to prevent people from getting heart disease in the first place. I also am looking forward to preventive cardiology focusing more on the social and behavioral aspects of medicine and public health, particularly the social and structural determinants of health.

We can seize this moment to have an impact on communities that have been historically overlooked. We need to take a holistic approach — looking at patients’ environments and how those environments influence what we are recommending, and if they even have the capacity to engage in many of our recommendations. We need to help address those environmental factors that may promote or hinder them from achieving the best health outcomes.

The post Caring in Community: LaPrincess Brewer, M.D., M.P.H. appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

With a few clicks, he places a digital implant onto the model. With another click, the software runs an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that pulls data from the patient’s medical scans and combines it with information about the standard shoulder replacement hardware to generate new specifications for a patient-matched implant. In 4 to 6 weeks’ time, a vendor will deliver a custom 3D-printed device designed to integrate seamlessly with the patient’s body. The goal, Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo says, is to make sure it’s perfect.

In the operating room, Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo dons a high-tech headset. During surgery, the headset projects holograms of the 3D patient model and the custom implant. With a flick of his fingers, he can adjust the image to present new views. The hologram highlights the precise anatomical landmarks detailing where Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo will position and secure the implant.

“It’s like having Superman vision,” he says. “You can see through the body’s structures and see exactly what you’ll need to do during the surgery. This level of detail allows me to complete the surgery faster than ever, and I can place the implant within millimeters and degrees of complete accuracy.”

Technologies like these — augmented, virtual and mixed realities — are revolutionizing medicine across every field from surgery to medical education. As Mayo Clinic works to transform healthcare, scenes that seem like science fiction are already unfolding at all three campuses.

Joaquin Sanchez-Sotelo, M.D., Ph.D., and Giselle Coelho, M.D., Ph.D.

Transforming Pediatric Care

Giselle Coelho, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic STR-X (simulation, telemedicine, robotics and experimental education) fellow and pediatric neurosurgeon, has leveraged this technology to address serious brain and skull malformations in infants and young children. In these cases, precision is paramount.

“Pediatric neurosurgery presents unique challenges,” explains Dr. Coelho. “These cases are relatively uncommon, and you may be faced with severe anatomical malformations. You never want the first time you do a procedure to be on an actual child.”

This is where extended reality tools become invaluable. Dr. Coelho’s team combines advanced imaging and 3D modeling technology to transform patient scans into detailed anatomical models.

These aren’t simple visual representations — they’re sophisticated surgical planning tools that clarify important details like the exact location of arteries, the precise dimensions of skull defects, and the spatial relationships between tumors and critical brain structures.

“We can simulate the full surgery before we ever enter the operating room,” Dr. Coelho explains. “The technology allows us to practice our approach, measure exactly how much bone we’ll need for reconstruction, and coordinate with other specialists like plastic surgeons.”

Even more importantly, she says that using augmented reality (AR) headsets projecting holographic images onto the physical model, they can conduct full simulations of the surgery, including nurses and operating room technicians, to ensure that every person knows exactly what to expect before the patient even enters the room.

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The impact of this approach is clear. Dr. Coelho shares an example of a complicated procedure her team conducted on a child from the Amazon region of Brazil with an encephalocele — a rare birth defect causing brain tissue to protrude through an opening in the skull. The team used AR technology to plan and demonstrate the surgical approach to the team and used a patient-specific hybrid model to plan and practice the surgery in advance.

“Traditional surgical planning might show us the general anatomy, but with these tools, we could determine the exact measurements of the defect and precisely calculate how much bone we needed to close it,” says Dr. Coelho.

For children requiring complex neurosurgery, this reduction in operating time isn’t just about efficiency. It means less time under anesthesia and potentially better outcomes. Experts say that this technology can transform not just the surgical experience, but the entire trajectory of a young patient’s life.

In the case of her patient with encephalocele, Dr. Coelho says that the procedure completely changed the child’s life, allowing her to excel in her studies and finally be able to fully engage in her community. “That’s what this is all about,” Dr. Coelho says. “We’re using technology to transform possibilities for our patients.”

Defining Realities

The term “extended reality” encompasses three emerging technologies: virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.

Illustrations by Jason Schneider

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) technologies are fully digital simulated environments, typically accessed via an immersive headset and sometimes including haptic feedback gloves to allow for environmental interaction.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) refers to cases where digital elements are projected onto the real environment, typically using a screen interface or headset.

Mixed Reality

Mixed reality (MR) combines virtual and real elements, such as in training simulations that project virtual models over real surgical dummies to enhance the learning experience.

Virtual Care in Critical Moments

Neurosurgeon Rabih Tawk, M.D., believes that these technologies can, and should, be applied to every field. “Every surgeon is always learning,” he says. “Every patient is different, with unique needs. These simulations provide a valuable new platform for surgical planning, tailoring the approach for everyone. Why shouldn’t all surgeons plan this way?”

Dr. Tawk uses a system called Immersive Touch, consisting of virtual reality goggles and hand controllers, to plan complex aneurysm surgeries. These tools allow him to create detailed 3D visualizations of the surgery site using patient brain scans, providing clearer insights into the patient’s anatomy than could be gleaned from simply looking at static 2D angiograms. These insights, in turn, allow him to generate a precise treatment plan.

Even outside of the operating room, these tools are changing how clinicians collaborate to provide care. Neurointensivist William D. Freeman, M.D., listed a multitude of ways that virtual reality is used in his field, including the use of virtual reality to enable rapid case review and consultations with remote specialists — critical for time-sensitive stroke care.

“In some places, hospitals are even using minimally invasive robots and remote controls in collaboration with on-site care providers so surgeons can place stents in stroke patients completely remotely,” he says. “These tools provide opportunities for expert care even in locations where a clinician of the right specialty is not available on-site.”

With the advancement of 6G technology, which allows for nearly instantaneous transmission of high volumes of data, Dr. Freeman sees a rapid evolution in remote surgical collaboration. In the future, he imagines that Mayo Clinic experts will participate in “4D surgeries,” with multiple surgeons in more than one location working to care for a patient together in three-dimensional virtual space, across the fourth dimension of time.

Advancements in data transmission technology will also enable “holoportation,” allowing remote specialists to participate virtually in consultations or medical procedures via realistic 3D hologram projections. At Mayo Clinic, this could mean that a specialist in Rochester appears to be standing beside a surgical team member in Arizona or Florida, providing guidance in real time while maintaining the feel of a natural face-to-face interaction.

While this may sound like science fiction, to Dr. Freeman, it’s simply the next step in ensuring that patients get the care they need, whenever and wherever they need it.

A Powerful Pairing

Combined with other advanced technologies, such as AI, extended reality tools are propelling surgery into the next century. “These technologies complement each other perfectly,” explains Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo. “AI helps us see and understand patterns in thousands of surgeries, while extended reality lets us apply those insights with unprecedented precision.”

In practice, this partnership begins long before the first incision. AI algorithms analyze vast databases of surgical outcomes to help design patient-specific implants and suggest optimal surgical approaches based on each patient’s unique anatomy. The technology can identify subtle variations that might affect surgical success.

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In the operating room, AI technology processes and interprets imaging data from multiple sources, generating the real-time visualizations that surgeons use via their AR headsets. AI systems can also track and analyze surgical performance metrics, providing instantaneous feedback during training simulations, and allowing trainees and their teachers to track progress against established benchmarks.

These advances are particularly crucial for remote surgery, where Mayo Clinic is pioneering new approaches. Advanced AI filters act as digital stabilizers for robotic surgical systems, eliminating tiny tremors or delays that could impact precision. “These safety systems are essential,” explains Dr. Freeman. “They ensure that even if there’s a minor connectivity hiccup, the robotic system remains steady and precise.”

The Reality of Implementation

Like any emerging technology, there are practical challenges to consider — some of which can be addressed simply by changing the room’s lighting. “The system requires specific environmental conditions to work optimally,” says Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo. “Very bright operating room lights can make it difficult to see the holograms, and certain colors of surgical gloves can interfere with the system’s tracking capabilities. You need a reliable internet connection, and you have to be ready to adapt if the technology experiences issues.”

Some more traditional surgeons have expressed concerns about overreliance on technology. Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo emphasizes the importance of maintaining clinical judgment alongside technological proficiency. “You still have to have common sense and be ready to adjust if the plan doesn’t work out,” he says. “These tools enhance our capabilities, but they don’t replace the need for surgical expertise and decision-making.”

In addition, the financial barriers to adoption can be significant. For institutions in underserved areas, these costs can be prohibitive. However, Dr. Freeman points to reduced recovery times as a benefit that offsets these costs. “Preoperative planning reduces complications during surgery and shortens hospital stays,” he says. “Shortening a patient’s length of stay in the ICU by even a day saves thousands of dollars. The cost-effectiveness ratio is quite favorable. These tools are investments that pay off in better patient outcomes and lower overall costs.”

Personalizing Care Beyond Physical Boundaries

These technologies represent more than just tools — they’re part of a new frontier in personalized medicine. Through Mayo Clinic Platform, healthcare’s first true platform, solution developers are exploring vast datasets and sophisticated AI models to detect diseases earlier, optimize therapies and generate more accurate diagnoses. When combined with extended reality tools, this creates unprecedented opportunities to tailor care to each patient’s unique needs.

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But perhaps most transformative is how these technologies are breaking down barriers to accessing expert care. Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo has seen this firsthand. “In many parts of the world, patients don’t have access to surgeons with expertise in complex procedures,” he says. “Now, I can virtually step into an operating room anywhere in the world. I can guide another surgeon in real time, showing them exactly where to place instruments, helping them develop new skills. We’re not just treating today’s patient — we’re helping doctors provide better care for all their future patients.”

These technologies demonstrate that distance need not be a barrier to receiving the highest level of care, that expertise can be shared instantly across continents, and that the future of medicine is both highly technical and deeply human.

“If I’m the patient, I want that top specialist for my critical condition available immediately,” says Dr. Freeman. “These technologies make that possible. They allow us to bring Mayo’s expertise directly to patients, wherever they are, whenever they need it. That’s not just innovation — it’s transformation.”

The post Digital Dimensions appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Delfina

“Post-COVID, maternal health is the public health challenge of our time,” says Senan Ebrahim, M.D., Ph.D., the CEO of Delfina — referencing the fact that the U.S. maternal mortality rate is nearly twice as high as that of other high-income countries. Delfina is on a mission to change this.

The app the company has created enables users to monitor their physical and mental health as pregnancy progresses and alerts them to any risks. It also provides services that make the pregnancy experience smoother. For example, users can contact a doula who can answer questions about everything from prenatal vitamins to the best places to buy maternity swimwear.

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First and foremost, though, is Delfina’s commitment to protecting the health of mothers and babies. Dr. Ebrahim highlights the experience of a patient in Texas who realized — thanks to the app’s remote monitoring capabilities — that her blood pressure had shot up. She contacted her physician, who promptly sent her to the emergency room. There, it was discovered that she had developed gestational hypertension. She was induced and had a safe vaginal delivery the same day. “She and her physician both attribute that great outcome to Delfina,” Dr. Ebrahim says.

The Accelerate program was vital in ensuring the success and growth that Delfina is experiencing. “It’s not every day that a top academic institution opens its doors to a company that hasn’t even existed for a year and says, ‘Yeah, let’s help you make sure the product you’re going to put out into the world meets the very highest clinical, scientific and safety standards,’” Dr. Ebrahim says. “Mayo brought in experts to show us how to build this product in a best-in-class way that’s safe for patients. That gave us the confidence to take these models out to market.”

Delfina now envisions a future where they’re able to provide long-term support to patients, optimizing their health from before they conceive through the postpartum period. With offices in New York City, Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Rochester, Minnesota, Delfina is growing — and supporting Mayo Clinic’s goal of making the area around its Rochester campus a hub for tech innovation and entrepreneurship in the Midwest.

The post Delfina appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

This commitment is seen in the industry-leading integration of automation and artificial intelligence, in major investments like Mayo Clinic Platform and Bold. Forward. Unbound., and in thousands of daily interactions between patients and their Mayo Clinic physicians and nurses.  

Patients from every state and 135 countries turned to Mayo Clinic for care last year. Their belief in the organization as the leader in healthcare was reinforced in U.S. News & World Report’s "Best Hospitals" rankings for 2025-2026, which Mayo Clinic led for the 36^th time since the rankings began.

Both Mayo Clinic in Rochester and Mayo Clinic in Arizona were members of the U.S. News Honor Roll, which evaluates hospitals across 15 specialties and 22 procedures and conditions. Mayo Clinic is the only healthcare organization with two hospitals to achieve this designation. 

Philanthropy plays a critical role in these rankings and Mayo Clinic’s transformation of healthcare. Benefactors change the lives of patients, such as those in Cancer Care Beyond Walls, Mayo Clinic’s innovative at-home chemotherapy program. 

In 2024, Mayo Clinic received a record $1.117 billion in philanthropic gifts and future commitments and has received several transformative gifts in 2025, including recent contributions to support the Mayo Clinic Berg Innovation Exchange and Bold. Forward. Unbound. in Arizona. 

Mayo Clinic again ranks No. 1 in the U.S. News state rankings for Minnesota and Arizona and continues to be the top hospital in the Jacksonville metro area. Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, has also been recognized as a Best Regional Hospital in Northwestern Wisconsin.

The post Mayo Clinic’s Commitment to Patients, Innovation Reinforced by U.S. News Rankings appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

C the Signs

A primary care physician in Britain’s National Health System, Bea Bakshi, M.D., was inspired to start C the Signs after encountering a patient in the emergency room late one night. The patient’s symptoms — which had been overlooked in earlier medical visits — turned out to be pancreatic cancer. Sadly, he died just three weeks later.

“Cancer is one of those diseases that is so time critical,” Dr. Bakshi says. She began to wonder how physicians could identify patients at risk of cancer earlier. Soon afterward, C the Signs was born.

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The company focuses on developing artificial intelligence models for different tumor types. These models analyze data in a patient’s medical record and patient-reported data, informing the patient or provider if there is evidence of cancer risk. The C the Signs algorithm then tracks the patient moving forward, monitoring if and when they do receive a cancer diagnosis. Known in the tech industry as a “closed-loop learning approach,” this method helps C the Signs refine their models.

The company’s time in the Accelerate program provided a further degree of refinement, with the C the Signs team digging into Mayo Clinic’s data to conduct retrospective testing. “We actually had the opportunity to see if we could intercept cancers earlier than the time and date of the diagnosis by physicians at Mayo,” Dr. Bakshi explains. Her team examined data related to the five types of cancer with the highest mortality rates in the U.S. — breast, colorectal, lung, prostate and pancreatic cancer — and found they were able to detect cancer up to five years earlier in 26% of patients. “That was phenomenal for us, and a really exciting research opportunity that we’re planning to publish,” Dr. Bakshi says.

After its stint in Accelerate, C the Signs was chosen to participate in the White House CancerX Accelerator, part of an initiative by the U.S. government to reduce cancer mortality by at least 50% over the next 25 years. Dr. Bakshi’s team is also preparing to launch a prospective study in partnership with Mayo Clinic.

“We’ve detected 50,000 patients with cancer in the UK. In five years’ time, I want to be talking about the number of patient lives we’ve saved in the United States,” Dr. Bakshi says. “That’s what good looks like for us.”

The post C the Signs appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Luminare

Luminare sparked excitement among the Accelerate team because it was taking an approach to sepsis — the No. 1 cause of patient death in hospitals — that no one had seen before. Instead of following the conventional pathway of creating an AI model that can predict sepsis, Luminare was examining how it could improve workflow for hospitals. Better workflow, the team found, will naturally lead to improved sepsis detection and more timely treatments for patients.

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After successfully implementing their model at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center — which was able to decrease sepsis mortality by 18.7% and shorten the length of ICU stays by 22.5% — and several other hospitals, the Luminare team came to Mayo Clinic to test and strengthen their workflow system using Mayo Clinic Platform’s dataset.

“Without going through Accelerate, I don’t think our company would have gotten to where we are today,” says CEO Sarma Velamuri, M.D.

Dr. Velamuri looks forward to enhancing and expanding Luminare’s digital tool and bringing it to market in the near future, thanks to the partnership of the Accelerate team and the boost Luminare has received as one of the first participants in Mayo Clinic Platform’s Solutions Studio (which has provided additional development and validation for Luminare’s digital tool).

“Our top goal is expansion in the U.S. healthcare system, and then internationally,” Dr. Velamuri says. “We want to be the leading player in sepsis and set the benchmarks for care. We want to say, ‘Look, here’s what good sepsis care for your loved ones looks like.’ And all so we can get them back home where they belong.”

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Three times per year, a group of hand-selected startups enter the 30-week program. Participants are given access to the deep, high-quality data available through Mayo Clinic Platform. With data access, they can build and test their algorithms and begin to integrate them into real-world healthcare settings. The Accelerate team also assembles a group of expert advisors for each startup and pairs each company with a Mayo Clinic mentor — typically a clinician in the branch of medicine the company focuses on. Through research and collaboration, startups gain firsthand insights into how their products will work in the clinical space.

We want to work with startups because we speak their language. We can really focus in on them and help them access the resources we have. We’re empowering them to bring their products to clinicians and patients.

— Jamie Sundsbak, senior manager of Accelerate

Graduates of Accelerate are already transforming the healthcare world, raising around $145 million as of February 2025 in the drive to bring their products to market. And most importantly, they are producing impactful new solutions for patients everywhere.

One company, C the Signs, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to scan a patient's electronic health record and predict cancer risk with a high degree of accuracy. Another, Delfina, created a pregnancy support app that has been downloaded by thousands of patients. A third, Luminare, created a screening system to improve the treatment of patients with sepsis in hospitals that was launched with considerable success at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. After using Mayo Clinic’s data to refine their platform, Luminare is aiming to bring its lifesaving product to more hospitals.

‘Foot on the Gas’

The first five weeks of Accelerate are dedicated to onboarding. During this time, “the Accelerate team starts to build a relationship with each and every individual participating in the program,” explains Jamie Sundsbak, the senior manager of Accelerate. “We want to get to know them. We want to understand what keeps them up at night and what they are hoping to accomplish.” Companies participate in Accelerate virtually, which provides valuable flexibility. Notably, nearly half of the companies that have participated so far are international.

“By week six, we want these companies to have a game plan,” Sundsbak says. “That’s when we give them access to our cloud. So leading up to that, we help them set goals. We work with them and their technical teams to kind of pre-navigate the data, and we have a comprehensive discussion about data safety and the ethics of data use. Then, the next 20 weeks is just foot on the gas.”

What does this next period look like for a young company’s leaders? For Bea Bakshi, M.D., the CEO of C the Signs, it meant digging into Mayo Clinic’s data to retrospectively test her company’s models.

“We actually had the opportunity to see if we could intercept cancers earlier than the time and date of the diagnosis by physicians at Mayo,” she explains. Her team examined data related to the five types of cancer with the highest mortality rates in the U.S. — breast, colorectal, lung, prostate and pancreatic cancer — and found that their model was effective in detecting cancer up to five years earlier in 26% of patients.

“That was phenomenal for us, and a really exciting research opportunity that we’re planning to publish,” Dr. Bakshi says.

Eureka Moments

Each company in Accelerate has the opportunity to work with Mayo Clinic’s rich data in the way that best suits their needs, just as C the Signs did.

For example, Luminare CEO Sarma Velamuri, M.D., and his team were able to begin identifying core phenotypes that make a patient more likely to develop sepsis during a hospital stay. “This was a eureka moment that happened when we were looking at the data,” Dr. Velamuri explains. “This pattern emerged, and we realized that there were common denominators to patients with sepsis. It was the first time in five years of working on sepsis full-time that I had this big ‘aha’ moment.”

Meanwhile, Delfina CEO Senan Ebrahim, M.D., Ph.D., and his team approached the data with an exploratory mindset as they considered how they could more effectively scan patients for pregnancy risks. “This data on tens of thousands of patients was more representative of the full spectrum of risk than anything we’ve seen previously,” Dr. Ebrahim says. Delfina already had high-performing predictive models for identifying patients who would benefit from care plans that prevent hypertension and gestational diabetes. With access to Mayo’s data, they were able to build models for predicting a patient’s risk of excessive gestational weight gain as well.

Keeping Up the Pace

After the 30 weeks are up and a company has “graduated” from Accelerate, its relationship with Mayo Clinic often continues. Some companies collaborate with Mayo teams to launch pilots or clinical trials, while others participate in Platform’s Solutions Studio, which helps them develop and validate their solutions and deploy them into workflows. Many of them also retain close ties with their cohort members and clinical mentors. The yearly Graduation Showcase event hosted by the Accelerate team gives companies the opportunity to present their product to Mayo Clinic at large, as well as to potential customers from Mayo Clinic Care Network and other institutions. This means that the work — and networking — doesn’t end after graduation.

“We want to work with startups because we speak their language,” Sundsbak says. “We can really focus in on them and help them access the resources we have. We’re empowering them to bring their products to clinicians and patients. We want them to leave the program feeling like it was the best possible thing they could have ever done.”

With the program attracting dynamic new cohorts multiple times each year, there are infinite opportunities for the Accelerate team to keep empowering young companies. No one is taking their foot off the gas anytime soon.

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