Every August 31, Whitney Thompson, M.D., M.Phil., travels to Chatfield, Minnesota, to release purple balloons.

On that day, Dr. Thompson is among the family and friends who come to Mill Creek Park to join Casey and Justine Bates — the parents commemorating the 18-month life of their late son, Oliver, who was diagnosed with WOREE syndrome, an ultrarare and incurable form of epilepsy that claimed his life in March 2022.

“I had the privilege of being with Oliver’s family at his diagnosis, and I was there when he took his last breath,” says Dr. Thompson, a dual fellow in neonatal medicine and clinical genomics at Mayo Clinic. “The bond we formed is hard to put into words. Being there is my way of continuing to care for his family and honor his life.”

WOREE syndrome (WWOX-related epileptic encephalopathy) is caused by a lack of an essential protein for brain development and function called WWOX. This is a result of mutations in the WWOX gene, which is located on the 16th chromosome.

“There’s still not a lot of information about it,” Justine says. “We were told to not expect him to live past 4, but he made it to his first birthday, which was very important to us.”

While Oliver’s life was brief, his legacy lives on at Mayo Clinic. Three years after he died, the life of Jorie Kraus, another child born with an ultrarare disease, would be transformed because of BabyFORce, the research and treatment procedures that began with Oliver.

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There for the Whole Journey

Nothing seemed especially distinctive about Oliver when he was born on Aug. 31, 2020, a day after his due date. Justine’s pregnancy had been uneventful.

But then at 5 ½ weeks old, Oliver had his first seizure. His parents rushed him to a nearby emergency room.

The hospital ran tests but was at a loss to explain the cause of that initial seizure and those that followed. Casey and Justine brought Oliver to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and he underwent a series of tests, including exome sequencing, which examined roughly 20,000 protein-coding genes, where many diseases originate.

For five agonizing weeks, Casey and Justine waited for the results.

“When you’re sitting and waiting, even for 24 hours, that can feel like a lifetime,” Casey says. “We felt hopeless.”

Finally, Casey and Justine received an answer: WOREE syndrome. It’s a recessive genetic condition that at the time had been diagnosed in fewer than 100 children.

Beyond symptom management, there were no treatments for WOREE syndrome, which carries an average life expectancy of just four years. But there was a new Mayo Clinic pediatrics resident who became very interested in Oliver’s case: Dr. Thompson.

“Dr. Thompson was the first one to really say, ‘I’ll take him,’” Justine recalls. “There were so many unknowns, but she said, ‘Whatever comes ahead, I’m there.’”

Though he was hospitalized multiple times, Oliver was able to spend much of his life at home before passing away on March 10, 2022.

That August 31, on what would have been Oliver’s second birthday, friends and family joined Casey and Justine to release purple balloons. Dr. Thompson was there, and she has returned for the balloon release every year since.

In 2024, the Bates family welcomed a new member: Whitney Bates, named in honor of the physician who had profoundly impacted their lives.

“Dr. Thompson was the person we could always turn to during the hardest time of our lives,” Justine says. “She always made sure that Oliver’s care and comfort were her priority.”

The Search for Faster Answers

The WOREE syndrome diagnosis, while painful to hear, had provided Casey and Justine with a measure of relief.

"Not knowing was so hard,” Casey says. “We feared the worst, and unfortunately we got the worst, but at least we knew why he was so sick.”

Seeing the Bates family endure the five-week wait for answers stuck with Dr. Thompson. She knew that Mayo Clinic could better meet the needs of seriously ill pediatric patients and their families.

The bond we formed is hard to put into words. Being there is my way of continuing to care for his family and honor his life.

— WHITNEY THOMPSON, M.D., M.PHIL.

Benefactor support and a collaboration with Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine enabled Mayo Clinic to pilot rapid whole-genome sequencing (rWGS) in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). rWGS analyzes a person’s genome — their entire genetic code — in a significantly shorter time frame than traditional WGS, which can take upward of 2–3 months to deliver complete results. rWGS allows clinicians to quickly identify genetic conditions to diagnose — an advantage that can be particularly valuable in critical situations.

During the pilot, which tested 10 babies, Dr. Thompson recalls organizing samples and obtaining consent from families in between her residency work shifts.

"After those 10 cases showed success, Mayo Clinic embraced rapid genome sequencing, and now it’s the standard of care in our NICU,” Dr. Thompson says. “It’s a good example of Mayo’s primary value of ‘the needs of the patient come first.’” In Mayo Clinic’s rWGS program, clinicians use advanced technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to sequence a patient’s 3 billion DNA base pairs. This comprehensive analysis can identify even the most subtle genetic variants. Though it may not always lead to a diagnosis, it can provide some insights into a patient’s health challenges.

"It’s really humbling to think that because of our son, parents don’t have to wait five weeks for the results, because that was the hardest,” Casey says. “Plus so many things are much more treatable if they can be detected early enough.”

The rWGS program, launched at Mayo Clinic in June 2022, has since been expanded to some adults who exhibit symptoms that suggest genetic disease, enabling them to receive the same rapid, comprehensive DNA analysis. To date, more than 300 infants, children and adults have been offered rapid whole-genome sequencing.

"When you are dealing with an ultrarare disease, it’s surprising how much good you can do with just a diagnosis,” says Laura Lambert, Ph.D., the director of Mayo Clinic’s Functional Omics Resource (FORce). “To tell a family that maybe you could help — or just that you’re willing to try — is life-changing for them. But you can’t try to fix the problem unless you know what the problem is.”

A Powerful Connection

In December 2022, the same year that the rWGS program began in full, Dr. Lambert arrived at Mayo Clinic.

While completing her postdoctoral fellowship at University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Lambert began using an AI tool known as a reasoning agent, which can process information, make decisions and perform tasks based on logical inference. For people with ultrarare diseases, specific reasoning agents can identify treatment options, enabling precision medicine. Mayo Clinic provided Dr. Lambert access to state-of-the-art reasoning agents that could accelerate research.

"We’ve been heavily supported by the institution, not just financially but also through mentorship and the ability to make connections,” Dr. Lambert says. “At Mayo if you say to leadership, ‘I’m going to meet with this big company, can you come with me?’ they’ll say, ‘Of course.’

"And then there’s the way people react when they hear you’re from Mayo Clinic. They’re so excited to meet with us because they really feel hope that we’ll be able to do something.”

Laura Lambert, Ph.D., and Whitney Thompson, M.D., M.Phil.

Dr. Thompson began her four-year dual fellowship in 2023. Not long after, she was in a meeting to discuss a NICU patient and met Dr. Lambert.

The two immediately connected as both friends and colleagues.

"Our professional expertise is so complementary — we’re like puzzle pieces that fit together,” Dr. Lambert says. “We both have our specific areas of expertise and areas where we overlap, but we also really see eye to eye on a lot of things.”

In April 2024, Drs. Lambert and Thompson launched BabyFORce. BabyFORce takes the next step after rWGS, using an advanced understanding of functional omics and AI technology to bridge the gap between diagnosis and treatment for babies with rare genetic diseases.

BabyFORce’s second patient was a girl with an ultrarare disease, whom Dr. Thompson had met a year before: Jorie Kraus.

An Unfixable Condition

Dave and Joanie Kraus had little time with their newborn daughter following her birth.

Jorie’s arrival on June 8, 2023, had come via a planned Cesarean delivery at 33 weeks of pregnancy, three weeks after Joanie had been admitted to Mayo Clinic Hospital – Rochester, Methodist Campus due to preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure and signs of organ damage.

Jorie, who weighed just 3 pounds, 5 ounces, was quickly moved to the Rochester Level IV NICU, reserved for the most critically ill newborns and preemies.

"The pregnancy was really rough, but we thought, ‘It’ll be OK once she’s born,’” Joanie says. “But when she was born, the doctors immediately knew something wasn’t right.”

To tell a family that maybe you could help — or just that you’re willing to try — is life-changing for them. But you can’t try to fix the problem unless you know what the problem is.

— LAURA LAMBERT, PH.D.

Like all parents whose babies are in the Level IV NICU and are suspected of genetic diseases, Dave and Joanie were offered the opportunity to meet with a genetic counselor and learn about rWGS. They decided to proceed with the testing.

The rWGS identified a 27-gene deletion on Jorie’s 10th chromosome, resulting in a shortage of a critical protein from her WAC gene. There was only one possible diagnosis: DeSanto-Shinawi syndrome, a condition that had been diagnosed in fewer than 30 cases worldwide.

Dave and Joanie were told DeSanto-Shinawi syndrome would result in low muscle tone and developmental delays.

"When they told us Jorie had DeSanto-Shinawi syndrome, I remember Joanie said, ‘What does this mean?’ And I said, ‘Well, everything else was fixable. This one isn’t,’” Dave recalls. “I couldn’t have been more wrong.”

Searching for Hope

During Jorie’s 73-day stay in the NICU, the Krauses met Dr. Thompson.

Jorie’s first weeks were frightening as she battled the effects of a condition for which there were no known treatments. Multiple times her vital signs suddenly dipped as her eyes dilated and she stopped breathing.

"The first time it happened, I was holding her, and she went lifeless,” Dave says. “I thought she had died in my arms.”

An otolaryngologist discovered Jorie had a tiny airway that was being further constricted by the low muscle tone caused by DeSanto-Shinawi syndrome. Surgeons fixed the breathing issue by inserting a feeding tube that bypassed her pharynx.

Eventually Jorie was stable enough to live at home, but her parents needed to drive 90 minutes to Mayo Clinic multiple times each week for her care. At a year old she was behind in every development measure: cognitive, receptive language, expressive language, fine motor skills and gross motor skills.

Throughout Jorie’s first year, the Krauses stayed in regular contact with Mayo Clinic and Dr. Thompson. When she and Dr. Lambert founded BabyFORce, they asked Jorie’s parents to consider enrolling their daughter.

Through BabyFORce, Mayo Clinic clinicians can move from diagnosis to personalized treatment and potentially uncover therapeutic options where none previously existed.

Drs. Lambert and Thompson used a reasoning agent to search for Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs that might possess additional, unrecognized uses.

"Drug repurposing is the quickest way to help these patients, because it takes years to develop a new drug,” Dr. Lambert says. “Reasoning agents make it possible to match genetic information with existing drugs that we know are safe.”

Jorie’s doctors were looking for a drug that might boost expression of the WAC gene, which provides instructions for making a protein involved in several important cellular processes. Clonazepam, a readily available seizure medication that was first approved by the FDA in 1975, emerged as a promising candidate.

Drs. Thompson and Lambert reviewed the research and decided to test clonazepam on Jorie’s skin cells, where the WAC gene is typically highly expressed. The drug triggered a surge of the critical protein in Jorie’s cells. Multiple tests confirmed the results.

"When the doctors gave us the news, I think they may have been as excited as we were,” Dave recalls. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen researchers that giddy.”

Because clonazepam was already FDA-approved, the Krauses didn’t have to wait for clinical trials. Jorie was given her first dose of clonazepam on April 1, 2025.

As promising as the labs had been, no one was expecting Jorie’s response.

A Startling Transformation

Development milestones that Jorie had missed — that seemed like they might never occur — arrived in waves.

On April 2, a day after the first dose of clonazepam, 22-month-old Jorie began side-traveling. After three days, she was toddling behind a walker, stable and confident. Within a week, Jorie had mastered going up and down stairs.

It wasn’t just Jorie’s mobility that roared to life. She began speaking — not babbling, but saying clear, distinct words — and she was scribbling with crayons at a level that was developmentally age-appropriate.

"We were so excited with the labs but also nervous,” Dr. Lambert says. “There’s always the chance that it could have been a false-positive, or maybe what worked in cell cultures wouldn’t work in vivo.

“It’s hard to describe how amazing it was to see how well — and immediately — clonazepam worked.”

Jorie has continued to narrow the gap between her development and the typical one of her peers. She loves music, puzzles, fine motor toys, Poke-A-Dot books and memory games.

Dave and Joanie have started The Jorie Effect, a foundation to support BabyFORce. The Krauses want to make it possible for more families to experience what they did: a second chance at a life that once seemed to be slipping out of reach.

“Jorie’s syndrome is like one big processing disorder,” Joanie explains. “It’s really hard for her to tell her feet to move, and she has structural anomalies like low muscle tone that make balance and coordination harder.

"With clonazepam, it was as though the lights came on all of a sudden. Jorie still has a long journey ahead, but it’s like the syndrome is reversing itself, which is just incredible.”

While The Jorie Effect supports BabyFORce, it exists because of baby Oliver, whose case drove Dr. Thompson to champion rapid whole-genome sequencing. Oliver’s legacy lives in every family who receives answers in days rather than weeks at Mayo Clinic.

Now each August, when purple balloons drift over the summer sky in Southeast Minnesota, they mark not an ending but a beginning. It’s the foundation upon which second chances like Jorie’s are built, and the promise that conditions once deemed unfixable might yield something different: hope.

The post To Jorie, From Oliver appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Accelerating Hope

Sometimes, one seemingly insignificant moment divides life into before and after. For Karen Koellner, it was the simple act of leaning over in bed to grab her phone charger that changed everything.

The pain was sudden and sharp as she shifted onto her side. She got up and walked to the mirror to see what was wrong. That’s when she discovered a lump under her arm. "I instantly was like, 'Oh my gosh, I must have cancer,’" she says.

The next morning she was on the phone with her doctor, who sent a referral to Mayo Clinic’s Arizona campus. She braced herself for what often comes next in moments like these: waiting. She was told it could take up to a week to receive a call back.

For patients facing a possible life-altering diagnosis, the referral process can feel like suspended time. But Karen’s phone rang just two hours later, thanks to intelligent automation working quietly behind the scenes.

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Finding Hope in a Time of Uncertainty

When something feels wrong, reassurance can’t come fast enough. Getting an appointment on the calendar is the first step toward answers.

"Patients are worried whether or not they're going to get in to be seen," says Erin Layman, operations manager at Mayo Clinic. Timeliness matters just as much. Mayo Clinic in Arizona alone receives more than 60,000 referrals per year, a number that continues to grow.

Until recently, processing those referrals required a time-consuming manual system.

"It took maybe two or three people to validate the faxes," says Gabriel Hernandez, patient liaison at Mayo Clinic. "It could be anywhere from a few pages to a hundred pages, and someone had to scan through each page to determine what each fax concerned."

Because of this lengthy process, there could be delays in callbacks. When patients are seeking care for potentially life-threatening conditions, those setbacks can mean prolonged fear, mounting uncertainty and critical lost time. "Some of these are serious cancer diagnoses, so it's a matter of life and death for some patients," Gabriel adds.

For an organization grounded in providing hope and healing to as many patients as possible, these delays demanded a solution. Mayo Clinic moved quickly to transform the system. That's where generative artificial intelligence (AI) entered the picture.

The Age of Automation

At the scale Mayo Clinic operates, having a human scan every page of every fax to locate key clinical details and determine urgency simply wasn’t sustainable. Referrals were arriving faster than they could be manually processed.

With generative AI’s help, Erin says information can now be quickly extracted from a variety of different documents and summarized into a cover sheet that is reviewed by one of Mayo Clinic’s agents for accuracy. "Then that individual can move it forward to the next step in the process," he says.

This technology doesn’t replace people. Instead, it empowers them by reducing administrative burden to focus on what matters most: the patient.

When the new automated system launched in July 2024, the impact was immediate. With the technology in place, referrals for patients with serious or complex medical conditions are now reviewed and processed in less than 24 hours.

Mayo Clinic trialed its new automated referral system in Phoenix, Arizona, and Rochester, Minnesota. The plan is to expand it to the Jacksonville, Florida, campus in 2026.

A Faster Path to Care

Gabriel says patients are frequently surprised to hear back so quickly. Karen was no exception.

Because the intelligent referral processing system flagged her case as urgent, staff acted quickly. By the next day, appointments were scheduled across multiple specialties and her care team was already coordinating next steps.

Karen’s intuition was right: She was later diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. Today, she is cancer-free.

"Time is so important when you get a cancer diagnosis," Karen says.

Erin says Mayo Clinic invested in this technology because patients needed it.

"With this automation, patients are getting the help they need sooner," he says. "For the patients, that means hope."

The post Accelerating Hope appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

The Pathfinder

Brian Lundstrom, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of neurology, brings a distinctive and, in many ways, quietly radical perspective to BIONIC. His vision centers on noninvasive neuromodulation as a path toward durable disease modification and, in some cases, cure, rather than lifelong symptom management.

With a background in biophysics, Dr. Lundstrom found his scientific calling in neurophysiology and studying the neural code — how neurons compute and encode signals. He became interested in working with patients with epilepsy, who routinely have their neural activity recorded to better understand the underlying disease. Because of this, epilepsy provides a unique opportunity to understand and improve neurological function for many disorders.

Ultimately, Dr. Lundstrom had a deep scientific goal: developing objective ways to measure brain excitability and function. With that foundation, clinicians could personalize brain stimulation, predict how patients will respond and intentionally drive long-term care.

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This led him to his clinical focus on the use of neural stimulation to treat epilepsy — both invasive (using implanted electrodes) and noninvasive (through external or wearable devices). And it’s through noninvasive therapies, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), that he sees opportunities to change the field.

“I’ve treated patients with epilepsy who undergo repeated stimulation, both invasive and noninvasive, and see a lasting reduction in their seizures, even after treatment has stopped,” says Dr. Lundstrom. “This is likely because our brains are highly plastic and can relearn healthier patterns of activity over time given optimal stimulation.”

What makes a noninvasive approach so compelling is its lower risk, with a lower barrier to access. “Patients must undergo surgery for an implanted device, and these are typically offered as a ‘last resort,’ when other treatment options have failed,” says Dr. Lundstrom. “But external stimulation is much lower risk and provides an opportunity to intervene much earlier in the disease course.”

[BIONIC supports a future] where we’re not only building more sophisticated devices, but these devices are more accessible, reaching more people and redefining how we think about neurological care.

— Brian Lundstrom, M.D., Ph.D.

These devices can be used outside of a hospital setting. Already some patients receive home-based stimulation for 20-30 minutes a day, several days a week, guided by their clinicians. In addition to epilepsy, these approaches can help with mood disorders, pain, tinnitus and even mild cognitive impairment, improving access to therapy across geographical barriers.

And Mayo Clinic is uniquely positioned to lead in this new arena because of its primary value: The needs of the patient come first.

“These noninvasive technologies attract less attention from commercial investment because they can be harder to monetize,” says Dr. Lundstrom. "But at Mayo Clinic, we are focused on what benefits our patients the most. And BIONIC exemplifies that, by supporting a future where we’re not only building more sophisticated devices, but these devices are more accessible, reaching more people and redefining how we think about neurological care.”

The post The Pathfinder appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

The Pioneer

To Gregory Worrell, M.D., Ph.D., William L. McKnight-3M Professor of Neuroscience, BIONIC doesn’t feel futuristic, but rather like the next logical innovation in neurological care — work Mayo Clinic has pioneered for years.

“We’ve already invested over a decade into building the scientific, technical, clinical and ethical foundation of this program,” he says. “BIONIC is our opportunity to harness emerging device and digital technologies to scale this work globally and make major advancements rather than incremental progress.”

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Dr. Worrell — who is also a recipient of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Established-Investigator Career Development Award in Translation Research — is a pioneer in neurostimulation. His research focuses on understanding how seizures develop and how epilepsy affects memory, mood and sleep.

Through his work, Dr. Worrell and his team have created a “next-generation” implantable brain-sensing and stimulation system. This technology leverages artificial intelligence to learn from ongoing brain activity and personalize a patient’s therapy over time, advancing toward truly autonomous adaptive neuromodulation. Currently, he is leading clinical trials to evaluate this technology in patients with medically intractable focal and generalized epilepsy.

“Every person’s epilepsy is different,” says Dr. Worrell. “Patients need personalized, precision treatment because seizures and epilepsy-related symptoms aren’t generated by the same circuit in every person. Importantly, brain activity changes with brain state — whether a person is awake, sleeping, dreaming or experiencing a seizure. Yet clinicians have traditionally stimulated the brain the same way regardless of brain state. There’s no adaptation.”

This is the real chance to personalize treatment — when we’re already there, already recording, already learning from that patient’s brain.

— Gregory Worrell, M.D., Ph.D.

Because patients already undergo extensive monitoring during invasive epilepsy evaluations, the care team can test multiple stimulation targets and parameters at the bedside. This allows clinicians to optimize therapy for each patient before they permanently implant the device.

Dr. Worrell sees this approach as a bridge, enabling learning and personalization at the bedside today, while advancing toward a future in which implanted device systems continuously learn from brain activity and adapt therapy in real time. 

“We can now quantify the brain’s state in real time and test adaptive therapy in the moment,” he says. “This is the real chance to personalize treatment — when we’re already there, already recording, already learning from that patient’s brain.”

The post The Pioneer appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

The Architect

For Sean Pittock, M.D., Glenn W. and Katherine K. Hasse Chair of Neurology and Applebaum Family Professor of Neurosciences, BIONIC represents the natural evolution of work he's championed for nearly two decades.

In 2006, Dr. Pittock established the first dedicated Autoimmune Neurology Clinic in the United States — a multidisciplinary practice built on a transformative insight: that many conditions dismissed as untreatable neurodegenerative diseases were actually reversible autoimmune disorders responsive to immunotherapy. His approach has always been translational, extending laboratory discoveries directly to patient care.

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As a director of Mayo Clinic's Neuroimmunology Laboratory, he has spent the last decade building multidisciplinary teams focused on Mayo Clinic’s Connect to Cure initiative. He has built his career on finding biomarkers that allow clinicians to intervene before irreversible damage occurs.

Now, with BIONIC, Dr. Pittock sees an opportunity to apply that same philosophy to the brain's electrical signals.

[Electrical signaling data] is an underused biological resource, and one of our major goals is to harmonize all of that data in a new sort of biobank.

— Sean Pittock, M.D.

"A lot of electrical signaling data is already collected as a routine part of neurological diagnostics and surgical care," he says. "Really, it's an underused biological resource, and one of our major goals is to harmonize all of that data in a new sort of biobank."

For Dr. Pittock, collecting and interpreting this electrical data, particularly how signals change with aging or disease, is crucial for detecting conditions early enough to make a difference.

The post The Architect appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

The Navigator

Before Kai J. Miller, Ph.D., M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Neurosurgery, was a clinician, he was a physicist, and a neuroscientist. Because of this, Dr. Miller — who is also a recipient of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Established-Investigator Development Award in Translational Research — embodies the core promise of BIONIC: translating deep scientific understanding directly into patient impact.

“A physicist is somebody who makes observations of the world and then tries to derive simple mathematical descriptions from that,” he says. “Then you learn rules based on those descriptions about how the world works. And our brains are part of the world.”

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Thanks to this multidisciplinary training, he approaches the brain as a physical system whose signals can be measured, modeled and translated into care. His research is focused on understanding brain circuit dynamics by measuring electrical activity via implanted electrodes. In essence, he says, “I develop tools to understand brain signals, and use this to directly help my patients.”

During procedures for epilepsy and other neurological conditions, Dr. Miller and his team record electrical activity directly from the brain. These signals reveal functional boundaries that traditional imaging cannot find — borders between regions that control movement, language, sensation or cognition.

Using advanced algorithms and AI-assisted analysis, the researchers interpret those signals as the surgery happens, generating individualized maps that reflect how that specific person’s brain is organized. These maps can then guide decisions on the patient’s care in the moment, leading to precise, personalized care, and new therapies for brain stimulation.

A physicist is somebody who makes observations of the world and then tries to derive simple mathematical descriptions from that. Then you learn rules based on those descriptions about how the world works. And our brains are part of the world.

— Kai J. Miller, Ph.D., M.D., Ph.D.

In the future, Dr. Miller sees a future where neurosurgery increasingly relies on adaptive models that predict outcomes before interventions occur. Digital representations of a person’s brain, built from real data, can help clinicians choose the safest and most effective path forward.

This work reflects a fundamental shift in how Mayo Clinic approaches brain care. By listening to the brain’s own signals and using them to guide action, Dr. Miller is helping move neurosurgery from approximation toward precision. This approach, grounded in science, sharpened by technology and guided by clinical judgment, illustrates how BIONIC turns deep understanding into safer, more personalized care for people facing serious or complex neurological diseases.

The post The Navigator appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

The Orchestrator

Gelareh Zadeh, M.D., Ph.D., arrived at Mayo Clinic in January 2025 with a clear mandate: to transform how the institution approaches neurological disease.

As chair of Neurosurgery, David C. and Flora C. Pratt Distinguished Chief Medical Officer for Mayo Clinic Platform, and a William J. and Charles H. Mayo Professor, Dr. Zadeh brings both the scientific credentials and the leadership vision to drive that change.

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Before joining Mayo Clinic, Dr. Zadeh spent nearly two decades building one of North America's premier brain tumor programs at the University of Toronto and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, where she became the first woman elected as chair of the Division of Neurosurgery and earned recognition with the Canada Gairdner Momentum Award.

Dr. Zadeh brings her expertise in cancer genomics and disease prediction modeling to a transformative vision for BIONIC, and she cautions that the path to transformation won't be easy.

There is a lot for us to learn at a physiological, cellular and genomic level. And that, really, is the inspiration for BIONIC.

— Gelareh Zadeh, M.D., Ph.D.

"We don't understand neurological circuitry as well as we need to," she explains. "There is a lot for us to learn at a physiological, cellular and genomic level. And that, really, is the inspiration for BIONIC."

She sees the field of neuroscience as still in its infancy — and that gap between what we know and what we need to know has become her rallying cry for building BIONIC as an institution-wide effort. By bringing together neurologists, neurosurgeons, bioengineers and neurophysiologists, she's orchestrating a fundamental shift: moving from treating symptoms to understanding and speaking the brain's own language.

The post The Orchestrator appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Rewiring the Future

Every thought, memory and movement generates an electrical signal in the brain. For decades, clinicians have recorded these signals during routine diagnostics and surgical care without fully understanding their meaning. But these thousands upon thousands of datapoints could reveal how the brain works, how it changes with age and how it breaks down in disease. Mayo Clinic's BIONIC initiative aims to crack the code.

Despite the wealth of recording data, the field of neuroscience remains in its infancy. The brain's circuitry is far more complex than many realize, and the gap between what we know and what we need to understand has created an urgent challenge: How do we translate the brain's own language into treatments that can halt or reverse neurological disease?

Mayo Clinic's institution-wide initiative brings together neurologists, neurosurgeons, bioengineers, data scientists and neurophysiologists in a rich ecosystem that aims to answer that question through three interconnected approaches.

The program plans to do this first by collecting and harmonizing electrical signaling data into a comprehensive biobank called NeuroElectromics. This will create the next frontier in neuroscientific discovery and provide an unparalleled resource for the greater neuroscience community.

THE BRAINS BEHIND BIONIC

Mayo Clinic's BIONIC initiative brings together neurologists, neurosurgeons, computational scientists, biotechnologists and bioengineers to harness the brain's electrical language.

THE ORCHESTRATOR

Gelareh Zadeh, M.D., Ph.D., arrived at Mayo Clinic with a clear mandate: to transform its approach to neurological disease.

Read More

THE ARCHITECT

For Sean Pittock, M.D., BIONIC represents the natural evolution of work he's championed for nearly two decades.

Read More

THE PIONEER

To Gregory Worrell, M.D., Ph.D., BIONIC doesn’t feel futuristic, but rather like the next logical innovation in neurological care.

Read More

THE NAVIGATOR

Kai J. Miller, Ph.D., M.D., Ph.D., embodies BIONIC's core promise: translating scientific understanding into patient impact.

Read More

THE PATHFINDER

Brian Lundstrom, M.D., Ph.D., brings a distinctive and, in many ways, quietly radical perspective to BIONIC.

Read More

Secondly, researchers will apply advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning modeling to identify early biomarkers for neurological disease — patterns in electrical signals that could predict a person's risk for dementia, epilepsy, mood disorders and degenerative conditions long before symptoms are visible.

Finally, Mayo Clinic experts will close the loop, by turning those insights into precision neuromodulation therapies that speak back to the brain, allowing it to heal itself.

The vision is ambitious, moving from reactive symptom management to proactive, personalized care guided by the brain's own signals. Instead of waiting for decline or relying solely on surgical intervention, these tools would monitor activity and respond in real time, creating a therapeutic conversation between the brain and the device. Implantable devices could sense abnormal activity and deliver electrical stimulation to stop a seizure before it starts. Wearable devices could rewire abnormal neural circuits through noninvasive stimulation. Cell-enhanced implants could release neurotransmitters or critical proteins precisely where needed. Simple recordings of voice, eye movement and gait can serve as early biomarkers of deterioration.

Turning this vision into reality requires more than technology alone. It demands leaders who move seamlessly between clinic and lab — clinicians who can listen closely to the brain's activity and translate it into care for people living with serious or complex diseases.

At Mayo Clinic, that work comes to life through several of the physicians driving BIONIC forward, each bringing a distinctive perspective and expertise to this transformative effort.

The post Rewiring the Future appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Precision Without Compromise

In the mid-2000s, Nadia Laack, M.D., a pediatric radiation oncologist at Mayo Clinic, saw an opportunity for patients. Mayo Clinic in Rochester was in the midst of designing a new facility for proton beam therapy — a powerful form of radiation that uses streams of protons to destroy tumor cells.

Dr. Laack knew that many patients would benefit the most from pencil beam scanning, the newest form of proton beam therapy. With this precise tool, she could direct protons at the exact contours of a tumor without injuring nearby organs.

But there was a catch. With pencil beam scanning, patients must remain perfectly still. For cancers in the lungs or abdomen, even the subtle movement of breathing could throw the beam off target.

And to prevent young children from wiggling, any form of proton therapy requires anesthesia, which greatly lengthens time in the treatment room.

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As a result, existing proton beam facilities only offered pencil beam scanning for cases where movement could be more controlled. These facilities also strictly limited the number of children they would treat each day so that, from a financial perspective, they could reserve more space for adults who could be moved in and out quickly.

Dr. Laack found these compromises unacceptable. Her colleagues agreed. Mayo Clinic would build the first proton beam facility in the United States that would exclusively offer the more advanced pencil beam scanning approach without limiting access for children.

To do so would come with significantly more work for Dr. Laack and her team, who partnered with engineers and physicists to design new tools to adapt to patients’ movements. And she brought on anesthesiologists to help engineer new ways to move kids in and out of treatment more quickly.

The Mayo Clinic Richard O. Jacobson Building housing the state-of-the-art proton beam facility opened in 2015. And Dr. Laack’s team has never had to turn away a child.

“We didn’t want anything to stand in the way of our ability to treat kids who needed our care,” she says.

Promise in Pencil Beam

Dr. Laack was committed to building a pencil beam scanning facility because she saw how much potential the treatment had to reduce the long-term side effects of radiation for many patients.

Traditionally, patients received radiation with photons, X-rays that pass into the body, through the tumor and out the other side of the body.

Photon radiation is an effective treatment for many cancers and is still commonly used today. But its path through the body requires radiation oncologists to limit the dose or risk damaging healthy tissue.

Proton beam therapy works by using a particle accelerator to whip protons up to a super high velocity — nearly the speed of light. A technician then directs these highly energized protons at a tumor. As protons pass into the body, they release most of their energy within the tumor, minimizing the radiation hitting healthy tissue around the cancer.

Pencil beam scanning is an even more targeted form that delivers protons packed into balls the size of pencil erasers, rather than a scattering of protons covering a wider area.

That precision is critical for children who could develop long-term side effects — such as growth, fertility or vision issues — if healthy tissue is damaged along with the tumor. Adults too can benefit from pencil beam scanning when tumors are situated in sensitive areas such as the brain, spinal cord, heart, lungs, liver and other abdominal organs.

Making Pencil Beam Possible

Dr. Laack and her team from the Division of Medical Physics collaborated with colleagues in the Department of Engineering to design tools to follow tumors in real time and only deliver protons when the tumors are on target. The team developed a respiration tracking tool, for example, that they place on a patient’s abdomen to capture the movement of breathing. They can then automatically trigger the proton beam to pause each time a tumor moves above or below the beam’s reach with each breath in and out.

To open access for more children, the team worked with Mayo Clinic anesthesiologists to figure out how to shorten treatment time. Their solution: prepare children for treatment outside of the pencil beam scanning room.

In the pretreatment area, a young patient lies on a specialized mobile table and begins receiving anesthesia from a compact delivery system. Once asleep, the child is then wheeled on the table into the pencil beam treatment room without interruption to anesthesia. Then a robotic arm docks onto the treatment table and moves it into the beam position. The robotic arm also has a compact anesthesia system built into the base, so the transfer of anesthesia tubes and lines is quick and seamless.

When designing this solution, the team was inspired by how anesthesia is delivered on the Mayo Clinic’s medical helicopters, says Dr. Laack. “You have a tight space in a helicopter too, and you don't want anesthesia lines in the way.”

In the proton beam treatment rooms, technicians use advanced imaging techniques to quickly pinpoint the precise location of the tumor. The robotic table adjusts and aligns the child perfectly so that the pencil beam directly hits the tumor.  

Commitment to Research and Care

Dr. Laack’s passion for designing the best possible cancer care began when her grandfather was diagnosed with leukemia. At the time, she was a college student at Colorado State University. She knew she couldn’t learn enough fast enough to help him. But she committed then to studying cancer so that she could help others.

As a medical student at Loma Linda University in California, Dr. Laack conducted research alongside her coursework, earning a master’s in physiology with a focus on breast cancer research.

She envisioned herself as a full-time cancer researcher. But then she began clinical rotations and discovered how much she values working with patients. “I was still passionate about studying cancer biology,” she says, “But the patient interaction was what brought me the most meaning and joy.”

It is so important to have all the tools in our toolbox so we can continue offering these patients the very best care.

— Nadia Laack, M.D.

As a radiation oncology resident at Mayo Clinic, she discovered that she was especially drawn to helping one patient group in particular: children. Working with kids facing difficult diagnoses was emotionally challenging, she says. “But I felt this was where I was needed the most.”

Today, Dr. Laack cares for patients of all ages, with a special focus on children. She also continues her research.

Before launching the proton beam facility, for example, Dr. Laack and her team spent a decade studying proton therapy and developing computer models that could project how effective and safe their new pencil beam facility would be for treating a wide range of cancers, including brain, breast, prostate and lung. After opening, they led more than 70 clinical trials to confirm that their proton therapy treatment resulted in the best outcomes. 

“The safety of our patients is the highest priority,” she says.

Accelerating Radiation Therapy Innovation for Patients

Today, Mayo Clinic’s proton beam therapy program has treated more than 10,000 patients, and soon, Mayo Clinic and Dr. Laack will have yet another radiation tool available for patients.

Within a few years, the recently constructed Duan Family Building at Mayo Clinic in Florida will be the first clinic in North America to offer a new technology: carbon ion therapy.

Carbon ion therapy is precise, much like proton therapy. But because carbon ions are more massive than protons, their impact is even more damaging to a tumor — making this form of radiation especially effective for patients with large or resistant tumors.

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Dr. Laack was an early proponent of bringing carbon ion therapy to Mayo Clinic. She recognized that Mayo Clinic staff were uniquely positioned to develop the new technology because of the knowledge they had already gained in proton therapy.

“We believed strongly that if anybody in North America was going to offer carbon ion therapy to patients, it needed to be Mayo Clinic,” she says. “We have the physics, the engineering and the physician expertise to be able to do it well and safely.”

Few of Dr. Laack’s pediatric patients require carbon ion therapy because pediatric tumors typically respond well to photon or proton therapy. But for some adult patients, and for children with treatment-resistant tumors, the technology could fight off cancer better and faster than existing therapies. Dr. Laack wanted to ensure that carbon ion therapy would be available for these patients.  

“Patients with some of the most difficult cancers — the hardest of the hard — come to us for hope and healing,” Dr. Laack says. “It is so important to have all the tools in our toolbox so we can continue offering these patients the very best care.”

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Leading the Charge in Carbon Ion Therapy

Laura Vallow, M.D., stands at the forefront of a medical milestone: bringing carbon ion therapy to the United States.

As chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Florida, Dr. Vallow leads a team of physicians, scientists and international collaborators who are advancing research in carbon ion therapy, an advanced cancer treatment that uses high-energy carbon particle beams to precisely target tumors.

“It’s not just another form of radiation,” says Dr. Vallow. “Carbon ions have unique biological properties. Our goal is to unlock that full potential.”

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Small-Town Roots, Big Ambitions

Raised in a small town 35 miles south of Chicago, Dr. Vallow grew up surrounded by family — including 28 cousins, a mom who served as a nurse, an uncle who was the fire chief, and another uncle who was the police chief. Hard work, helping others and service to the community were constant themes.

“There was always this closeness in my family,” she says. “Work and family were intertwined, and they had fun doing it. No one pushed me toward a specific career. Instead, they taught me to find my passion and work hard at it.”

For Dr. Vallow, that passion was science. She attended the University of Illinois where she earned a degree in biochemistry. During her years as an undergraduate student, she joined Argonne National Laboratory, where she worked alongside Ph.D. scientists and presented at national conferences, building the confidence to envision a future in science.

“I realized I could do this — and succeed,” she says. “I was excited for a life of helping and impacting others through science.”

Finding Medicine

Eager to continue her scientific career, Dr. Vallow entered Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago where radiation oncology quickly captured her interest.

“Radiation oncology has this fascinating technology you get to explore,” she says. “It’s the perfect blend of science, technology and patient care.”

These are diagnoses that too often are a death sentence. Despite decades of work, progress has been limited. Carbon ion therapy gives us a real chance to change that.

— Laura Vallow, M.D.

After completing her residency at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s University, she joined Mayo Clinic in 2001. Specializing in breast radiation oncology, Dr. Vallow became a leader in clinical trials and advancing innovations to improve outcomes for patients with breast cancer, such as shorter treatment courses and effective positioning for minimal impact on heart and lungs during treatments. In 2021, she became chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology.

“Once I started at Mayo Clinic, I knew that I never wanted to go anywhere else,” she says. “I love the integration of science and patient care. It’s a wonderful thing to take care of patients in this environment where everyone pushes you to be your best.”

Shattering Limitations

Today, Dr. Vallow no longer runs a single lab. Instead, she oversees multiple research efforts, including collaborations with carbon ion centers in Asia and Europe. At the center of her work is Mayo Clinic’s new integrated oncology building — the Duan Family Building — which will house the nation’s first carbon ion treatment facility.

Current radiation therapy applies a one-size-fits-all approach, using general parameters that don’t account for biological differences between tumors and normal cells. Dr. Vallow wants to change that.

“We envision profiling tumors to understand which patients will benefit most, and at which dose,” she says. “That’s how we’ll shatter current limitations to make treatments more personalized — and more powerful.”

Her department is already advancing this vision. One prospective study, led by colleague Bradford Hoppe, M.D., compares outcomes and quality of life for patients with bone sarcoma receiving traditional care at Mayo Clinic versus those treated at international carbon ion centers.

Through studies like this, the team will extend carbon ion benefits to more people with more types of cancer.

Shaping the Future

Dr. Vallow credits Mayo Clinic’s leadership with taking bold steps to bring carbon ion therapy to the U.S.

“Many institutions have talked about it, but no one has done it,” she says. “Our responsibility is to do this so well and lay out the research so impeccably that others can follow, and together we’ll expand access to carbon ion nationwide.”

Under her leadership, the department is poised to continue to grow as Mayo Clinic opens its doors to patients in need of carbon ion therapy. Dr. Vallow’s vision includes tackling some of the most intractable cancers, such as glioblastoma and pancreatic cancer.

“These are diagnoses that too often are a death sentence,” she says. “Despite decades of work, progress has been limited. Carbon ion therapy gives us a real chance to change that.”

And now, with carbon ion therapy on the horizon, Dr. Vallow’s passion continues to drive her to reshape the future of cancer care.

“I didn’t always know I would end up as a physician researcher, but now, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

The post Leading the Charge in Carbon Ion Therapy appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.