At Mayo Clinic Laboratories, we provide answers for patients and their healthcare providers when they need them most. We work alongside our partners, one healthcare system to another, to deliver expertise, tools, and data to help clients realize the power of their lab to optimize patient care. Because more than 70% of clinical decisions are influenced by laboratory data, high-quality answers are integral to elevating patient care.
The unique collaboration between Mayo Clinic Laboratories and the clinical practice at Mayo Clinic enables the development of advanced, patient-focused testing that meets a medical need. This integration not only supports the implementation of clinically meaningful assays, it also fosters pioneering research and the creation of educational resources that improve healthcare for all.
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Mayo Clinic was founded with the belief that sharing medical information is integral to improving understanding. Our laboratory physicians and scientists are available to collaborate on patient orders and discuss test results. Access to our clinical experts and vast testing library helps clients expand and diversify into areas of specialized diagnostics, providing patients in their communities with world-class care.
“Because of the highly integrated nature of Mayo Clinic's practice of medicine, we're asking questions, we're making observations in our practice that maybe others don't make. As soon as that question is asked clinically, that's really what spurs the innovation within the laboratory to address it.””
William Morice II, M.D., Ph.D., President and CEO, Mayo Clinic Laboratories
Highlights
New diagnostic tests specifically for conditions that predominantly or only affect women, such as autoimmune diseases and gynecological cancers, are empowering female patients and their physicians to make informed decisions.
JoAnne Michael’s symptoms started with dizziness and forgetfulness before down spiraling into severe confusion, crying jags, and brain seizures. ER doctors at her local hospital initially thought she was on drugs. JoAnne, terrified, wondered if she was dying. Luckily, she had a guardian angel by her side: her mother, a retired nurse practitioner, who took her to Mayo Clinic, where the clinical experience and expertise of neurologist Andrew McKeon, M.B., B.Ch., M.D., helped give her a diagnosis and hope for a journey back to health.
Mayo Clinic Laboratories has developed a cutting-edge suite of Alzheimer's disease testing. The newest assays use blood samples, avoiding the need for lumbar punctures to obtain cerebrospinal fluid. The testing suite exemplifies Mayo Clinic Laboratories' innovative business approach. As a platform company, Mayo Clinic is creating a diagnostics ecosystem to meet a wide range of testing needs and help physicians order the right tests for their patients.
When Samantha Duke discovered she had breast cancer, she didn’t have to look far for support. Her mother Jane walked a similar path 16 years earlier. Inspired both by her mom and the strong network of healthcare physicians and professionals on her team, Samantha remained positive throughout her treatment and is committed to advancing research on breast cancer.
Mayo Clinic Laboratories has introduced a revolutionary diagnostic test for bile acid malabsorption, a significant contributor to chronic diarrhea. Developed by Dr. Michael Camilleri and Dr. Leslie Donato, this new bile acid malabsorption panel simplifies diagnosis and improves patient care by eliminating the need for special diets or prolonged stool collection. The test's effectiveness has been validated internationally, offering new treatment avenues for patients. Discover how this innovative test is transforming clinical practice and enhancing patient outcomes.
In a quiet suburb outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota, an ordinary Saturday took a sudden and alarming turn for Scott Olson when he began experiencing symptoms of ventricular tachycardia. Central to the care and treatment he'd receive at Mayo Clinic was the precise testing that was done by Mayo's Cardiac Pathology Lab, which uncovered the true cause of his erratic heart rhythm. That discovery not only clarified Scott's diagnosis, but also highlighted the critical role that advanced diagnostics plays in guiding successful patient outcomes.
Central nervous system infections, such as meningitis and encephalitis, can be devastating for affected patients. While specific treatments are available for some of these infections, it first requires identifying the precise cause of infection. To meet that need, Mayo Clinic Laboratories has developed a metagenomics assay that can identify more than 1,000 pathogenic organisms in cerebrospinal fluid. The innovative assay, which uses an approach known as shotgun metagenomic sequencing, is one of the only such tests currently available.
What started as a persistent headache for Spencer Lodin soon devolved into slowed speech, seizures, and hallucinations, symptoms which stumped ER doctors into thinking he had meningitis or was suffering from psychosis. Finally, specialized testing at Mayo Clinic identified Spencer's condition as GFAP-IgG associated autoimmune encephalitis, which allowed for targeted treatment and a full recovery.
Mayo Clinic Laboratories introduces the Inherited Parkinson’s Disease Gene Panel (Mayo ID: PARDP), a collaborative breakthrough poised to transform Parkinson’s disease diagnosis and treatment. Led by Rodolfo Savica, M.D., Ph.D., and Zhiyv (Neal) Niu, Ph.D., this comprehensive test offers unparalleled insights into Parkinson’s genetics, unveiling novel gene associations and enhancing diagnostic precision through next-generation sequencing. The panel’s capabilities include detecting subtle genetic variations and identifying familial patterns, promising personalized medicine advancements.
Since 1992, cases of colorectal cancer have been on a slow decline, yet 52,550 people died from it in 2023. At Mayo Clinic, a cutting-edge menu of both germline (inherited genetic alterations) and somatic (tumors due to non-inherited genetic alterations) testing are two critical tools helping to improve targeted treatments for colorectal and other common gastrointestinal cancers.
Dr. Linda Hasadsri’s firsthand encounter with the genetic tests she’s helped develop has provided rare insight into testing quality and implications, enhancing their ability to advocate for the value of testing and infusing their work with deep empathy.
Recognizing the powerful role genes can play in diagnosing illness and guiding treatment, the Division of Laboratory Genetics and Genomics at Mayo Clinic spearheaded a testing expansion, implementing and upgrading more than 60 advanced sequencing and biochemical assays in 2023 and planning for even more this year.
When Mayo Clinic physicians, through patient care, identify a need for a new diagnostic test, our robust innovation hub develops a new test for clinical use. This relationship enables the development of novel assays that are often the first-to-market. Because the rate of scientific discovery continues to accelerate, our testing is routinely assessed to ensure clinical relevance.