Mayo Clinic to collaborate with Colorado State University on biomedical research for oncology and infectious diseases

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Mayo Clinic has signed a multi-year research agreement with Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., to collaborate on the development of oncology and infectious disease therapeutics. The collaboration will allow Mayo Clinic and Colorado State to combine expertise in comparative oncology and new treatments for disease.

"The goal of this collaboration is to bring new diagnostic tests specifically related to cancer and infectious diseases to help us advance biomedical research and bring new diagnostics and therapeutics to patients," says Ronald J. Marler, D.V.M, Ph.D., and associate director for Research/Research Alliances at Mayo Clinic.

Tony Frank, provost and senior vice president at Colorado State, notes that Colorado State's excellence in biomedical research has attracted significant federal funding, such as for emerging infectious diseases. He credits Mayo for transferring new technology from the laboratory directly to patients, adding that the knowledge gained by the partnership "will help move technologies and solutions into the marketplace."

Mayo Clinic continues to expand its collaborative network through research and education as part of its vision. In June 2005, the 110-000-square-foot Mayo Clinic Collaborative Research Building opened on Mayo's Scottsdale campus - the first of its kind for Mayo in that it brings multiple strategic partners under one roof to work on scientific discoveries to help patients.

"Our collaboration with Colorado State is an important step for improving the future in caring for patients and developing new types of therapeutics to advance medicine," Marler adds.

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. As a leading academic medical center in the Southwest, Mayo Clinic focuses on providing specialty and surgical care in more than 65 disciplines at its outpatient facility in north Scottsdale and at Mayo Clinic Hospital. The 208-licensed bed hospital is located at 56th Street and Mayo Boulevard (north of Bell Road) in northeast Phoenix, and provides inpatient care to support the medical and surgical specialties of the clinic, which is located at 134th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.

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About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education visit www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com is available as a resource for your health stories.