Overview

The mission of the Center for Cell Signaling in Gastroenterology (C-SiG) at Mayo Clinic is to improve understanding of the signaling pathways that control the function of gastrointestinal cells, both in health and disease.

Tremendous progress has been made toward uncovering the fundamental mechanisms that contribute to gastrointestinal diseases, but new insights haven't been sufficiently translated into innovative therapies. Unlike breakthroughs in other major biomedical fields, advances in gastrointestinal cell biology have had a limited meaningful effect on the natural history and prevalence of many diseases involving the gastrointestinal tract.

The Center for Cell Signaling in Gastroenterology is designed to facilitate progress — progress that depends on access to a variety of tools for basic scientific discoveries and opportunities for translational advances.

Our center serves as a hub that provides access to state-of-the-art research resources and expertise to multidisciplinary groups of basic scientists and clinical researchers. Although our center's focus is on digestive disease research, our members come from a variety of fields, including biochemistry and molecular biology, endocrinology, physiology, immunology, pathology, and oncology.

Our center also fosters research collaboration among scientists and clinicians, which enables faster translation from the lab to clinical trials, ultimately improving digestive disease treatment for patients.

The Center for Cell Signaling in Gastroenterology at Mayo Clinic is designated a Digestive Disease Research Core Center funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. Learn more about these core centers.

Leadership

The director of the Center for Cell Signaling in Gastroenterology is Nicholas F. LaRusso, M.D.

Goals

Goals of the Center for Cell Signaling in Gastroenterology are to support and enhance digestive disease research by:

  • Fostering collaborative, multidisciplinary research both by expanding the technical and collaborative capabilities of established GI scientists and by attracting investigators from other disciplines
  • Promoting synergistic interaction among Mayo Clinic investigators through activities that support digestive disease-related research and promote translation of basic science discoveries into clinical research
  • Developing and implementing the robust and diverse Scientific Enrichment Program that includes seminars, workshops, symposia and web-based curricula
  • Identifying and nurturing development of new GI investigators via the rigorously peer-reviewed Pilot and Feasibility Program
  • Creating a supportive infrastructure that makes technologies more easily accessible; providing technical expertise to members from experts in a particular technology; using existing resources efficiently; and developing novel methodologies through three linked biomedical center cores

Cores, software and resources

Shared resources foster productivity, synergy, and new research ideas and techniques in an efficient, cost-effective manner. Our center offers specialized equipment, technologies, reagents, expertise and other services to assist faculty members and their research teams through three cores. Administrative software tools are available for use by other Digestive Diseases Research Core Centers, along with a variety of other resources: