Mayo Clinic and ASU to form collaborative research teams

Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University's (ASU) research leadership announce the launch of a new grant program that will team up research scientists and clinicians from both institutions to develop transformative solutions for patients.

The inaugural Mayo Clinic and ASU Team Science Grants will fund Biomedical Sensing, Functional Restoration and Biomedical Imaging/Informatics themed projects. Three collaborative Mayo and ASU research teams were chosen, which are comprised of researchers from both institutions.

"This uniquely collaborative approach to medical science capitalizes on the clinical and technological strengths of Mayo Clinic and the broad range of engineering expertise at Arizona State University," says Gregory Gores, M.D., executive dean for Research at Mayo Clinic. "We are pleased to support multidisciplinary teams with rich expertise, working synergistically to transform scientific discoveries into critical technological advances to address unmet needs of patients."

Together Mayo Clinic and ASU have committed up to $2.7 million in award funding that will be split among each of the three projects.

"ASU and Mayo Clinic are redesigning conventional approaches and proposing novel solutions to enhance patient care, education and research focused on better health outcomes," says Sethuraman "Panch" Panchanathan, executive vice president of Knowledge Enterprise Development and chief research officer at ASU. "Investing in this year's Team Science awardees helps us recognize the transformative efforts of brilliant researchers from both organizations."

The three teams will be jointly led by faculty from both institutions.

This year's awarded projects are:

A multidisciplinary approach to optimize integration of sensory feedback for prosthetic applications in people with upper limb loss: A multidisciplinary team will work to enhance intuitive motor control and the ability for those with upper limb loss to feel with their prosthesis. The project will test and validate sensor technologies integrated with a prosthetic to address the unmet needs of individuals who currently have upper limb loss. Co-principal investigators are Kristin Zhao, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic, and Marco Santello, Ph.D., ASU.

Phase-contrast imaging using a compact coherent X-ray light source: Working with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic and ASU team will research an alternative method of X-ray phase-contrast imaging (XPCI). Currently, XPCI requires long exposures while using medical x-ray tubes. The team aims to construct a compact X-ray light source that will make medical XPCI clinically possible. Co-principal investigators are William Graves, Ph.D., ASU, and Cynthia McCollough, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic.

Next generation brain mapping in epilepsy surgery: The project team will focus on developing a novel, flexible sensor platform for electrophysiology mapping of normal and epileptic brain tissue. The goal is to allow surgeons to visualize abnormalities and cut out epileptic brain tissue, which will improve efficiency and outcomes. Co-principal investigators are Greg Worrell, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic, and Gregory Raupp, Ph.D., ASU.

Provided by Mayo Clinic