Patient Care
The Center for Individualized Medicine was established in 2011 as a strategic priority to integrate genomics into patient care across Mayo Clinic. Researchers, physicians and other clinical staff members collaborate in a comprehensive team science approach to bring advanced diagnostic tests and individualized therapies to patients. The center has established service lines in cancer, rare and undiagnosed diseases, pharmacogenomics, and predictive genomics and is integrating these services into patient care.
The Center for Individualized Medicine is transforming patient care through advanced genetic tests and individualized treatments that address patients' unmet needs by finding accurate diagnoses earlier, providing safer drug therapies and customizing treatment plans based on each patient's unique genetic makeup.
Mayo Clinic is focused on four strategic themes to move breakthrough therapies and critical advances in patient care from the research lab to the clinical practice so that more patients can benefit from the promise of individualized medicine:
- Moving beyond DNA. The Center for Individualized Medicine is looking ahead to a multi-omics future — including the study of proteins in a cell (proteomics), the study of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses that live inside the body (the microbiome), and the study of chemical processes (metabolomics) — to identify the underlying causes of diseases and solve clinical challenges for patients with cancer or rare and undiagnosed disease.
- Connecting genomics data. Connecting genomic or multi-omic data to the electronic health record is critical to advancing research and improving health outcomes.
- Individualizing care with genes, bugs and drugs. Mayo Clinic is moving from diagnostics to therapeutics by individualizing care. Researchers are exploring the translation, application and implementation of omic technologies to better define and select the appropriate therapy for each patient with advanced cancer; gene therapy to prevent development of disease; phage therapy in treating multidrug-resistant infection; and microbiome-based therapy for inflammatory bowel disease, colitis and other health issues.
- Scaling and simplifying genomics. Mayo Clinic's vision is to scale, simplify and automate genomics for clinical transformation. To help comb through the vast amounts of genomic data, the Center for Individualized Medicine's researchers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to discover patterns and solutions, while relying on bioethics experts to help navigate critical issues such as genetic data privacy. The center continues to build and educate the precision medicine workforce of the future.