Insights: Stories

A young dancer from Minnesota thrives with a rare blood disorder, thanks to resilience, family advocacy, and lifesaving lab medicine.

Mayo Clinic Laboratories is applying AI where it helps most today, strengthening daily workflows while keeping experts firmly in control. From faster specimen intake and triage to data‑informed scheduling, first‑pass support for complex analyses, draft interpretive reporting, and reliable digital pathology quantification, teams use AI to organize information, reduce repetitive steps, and improve consistency. Human‑in‑the‑loop oversight, fit‑for‑workflow design, and regulatory‑aware communication keep the focus on safe, practical gains that benefit patients, clinicians, and laboratorians.

Viral and pharmacogenomic testing help clinicians detect infection early, tailor immunosuppression, and improve long-term outcomes for organ transplant recipients.

After months of misdiagnoses, Tom Heisler found answers at Mayo Clinic, where advanced renal pathology revealed IgG4-related disease and led to his recovery.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping laboratory medicine, not as a distant promise, but as a practical tool improving diagnostics, workflows, and quality. Through collaborative development, rigorous validation, and a commitment to ethical innovation, Mayo Clinic Laboratories is implementing AI-driven solutions that enhance precision, reduce turnaround times, and empower laboratorians to focus on what matters most: patient care.

A random urine test panel aids in diagnosing mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), a complex condition often misdiagnosed due to overlapping symptoms. The panel improves access, speeds up diagnosis, and enables individualized treatment by detecting key mast cell mediators.

After mysterious neurological symptoms began in 2010, Brad Karon, M.D., Ph.D., was diagnosed with paraneoplastic syndrome, a rare condition that led to groundbreaking research and test development at Mayo Clinic. Years later, pulmonary fibrosis and a double lung transplant would test him once again — and redefine his resilience.

Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ newly expanded Hereditary Pancreatitis Gene Panel is transforming how clinicians diagnose and manage a complex, often elusive disease. Developed through close collaboration between lab scientists, genetic counselors, and clinicians, the test uses a whole exome sequencing backbone to analyze nine carefully selected genes with strong clinical relevance. This focused approach avoids ambiguous results while empowering early diagnosis, cancer risk assessment, and family testing. Built on a whole exome backbone with reflex capabilities, the panel represents a major step forward in precision medicine — offering clarity for patients and providers, and a platform for future genomic innovation.

For many, the path to a correct diagnosis can be long and filled with uncertainty. This story highlights the resilience and determination of one patient who navigated a complex medical journey to find answers and hope at Mayo Clinic. The patient asked to remain anonymous for personal privacy reasons.

By using a test that measures neurofilament light chain (Nfl) proteins in blood, clinicians can better diagnose devastating diseases like ALS and MS, help predict disease progression, and better assess efficacy of existing drugs and trial therapies.

The fifth episode of “Life of a Specimen” video series highlights Joy Carol’s treatment journey after Mayo Clinic Laboratories antibody testing identified a paraneoplastic autoimmune disorder as the cause of her life-threatening symptoms.

After years of misdiagnosis, Tyler Hart found answers at Mayo Clinic, discovering he had NF155-IgG4 autoimmune nodopathy instead of CIDP