Transforming test results into actionable insights

Since overcoming a life-threatening diagnosis five years ago, Jim Smith has embraced life. But each time he travels to Mayo Clinic for follow-up laboratory testing, a well of emotions rises up to remind him of life’s fragility. Thankfully, through streamlined, accurate testing and top-notch clinical care, those feelings are generally short-lived.

In a groundbreaking study, Mayo Clinic investigators have developed a multiomic molecular method to predict clinical COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) outcomes better than traditional cytokines. Using a machine-learning-based prediction model, the team identified 102 biomarkers, which include several novel cytokines and other proteins, lipids, and metabolites. The discovery may help clinicians reliably predict a more severe course of COVID-19 before the patient gets sick enough to be hospitalized. Until now, there have been no biomarkers that can reliably predict which patients are more likely to have severe illness.

Two years ago, when 29-year-old Meckenzie Tinaglia experienced a series of seizure-like events shortly after a cardiac ablation procedure, she knew her heart was to blame. Her local providers, however, weren’t convinced. If not for Mayo Clinic remote cardiac monitoring and the data it provided about Meckenzie’s potentially fatal arrythmia, the busy wife and young mother might not have survived.

By collaborating with Mayo Clinic Laboratories, Morris Hospital & Healthcare Center has been able to expand complex and specialized lab testing in the communities they serve.

In Mayo Clinic’s Advanced Diagnostics Laboratory, there are dozens of projects underway at once to develop new technologies, discover novel findings, validate new tests, and support physicians in providing advanced patient care. For example, researchers are using phage immunoprecipitation sequencing (PhIP-Seq) to discover new serological biomarkers for autoimmune diseases. In a recent study using PhIP-Seq, Mayo Clinic researchers discovered a previously unknown antibody marker for immune-mediated rippling muscle disease (iRMD). This finding will support testing options and accurate diagnosis of iRMD, helping physicians treat patients with iRMD and restore their quality of life.

Kenneth Hobby assumed his fever, fatigue, and aching pains in May 2018 were from another bout of malaria. He was on one of his frequent visits to Zambia in southern Africa, where the mosquito-borne parasite is common. But anti-malaria drugs didn't help, and soon Kenneth had such disabling pain that he could barely walk.

In a recent study, Mayo Clinic researchers developed the first cellular DNA barcoding with a machine-learning approach to reveal previously unknown metastatic behavior of tumor cells. Researchers barcoded the DNA of millions of human ovarian cancer cells and transplanted them in mice, where rare tumor initiating cells and their progenies could be tracked within the primary tumor as well as in every other organ they were spreading into. The entire community of cells generated by a single barcoded cell had identical barcodes. This enabled the tracking of a large number of benign and metastatic clones by sequencing DNA barcodes in tumors and various organs, including blood and ascites. Using the cellular DNA barcoding approach and a newly developed data analysis system, researchers could track clonal growth dynamics in various metastatic sites and trace it back to its ancestral tumor-initiating cell. They used artificial intelligence to tackle the complex data to identify if the clonal metastatic spread is happening peritoneally or through blood routes.

At just 24-years-old Anya Magnuson has survived not just one but two close encounters with death. Focused, determined, and intent on experiencing life to its fullest, Anya never gave up. Nor did the multidisciplinary Mayo Clinic care team who worked tirelessly to heal her.

Bringing together advanced testing technology, unparalleled expertise, and a patient-focused approach, Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ new high-resolution urine drug testing profile, ADMPU, evaluates for 22 drug classes including alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine, enabling clarity on substance use and precision insights that propel treatment.

As a two-time brain tumor survivor, Alex Kraatz has been through more harrowing medical experiences in his 34 years than most people face in a lifetime. But Alex’s fighting spirit, coupled with precision laboratory testing and cutting-edge treatments, have propelled him forward, keeping him hopeful despite the odds.

Partnering with Mayo Clinic has helped St. Clair Health improve patient care and gain a new competitive advantage in pharmacogenetics.

This unique Mayo Clinic resource offers a novel portal into the study of gene mutations before they cause breast cancer.