Stethoscope lying atop bar graphs, pie chart and columnar statistics.

Overview

Mayo Clinic's Biostatistics Core provides comprehensive statistical and data science expertise to investigators at all stages of the research process. Grounded in team science principles, our mission is to deliver high-value, collaborative analytic partnerships that advance rigorous research and improve human health.

The Biostatistics Core includes over 200 highly trained professionals, including biostatisticians, data science analysts and statistical programmers. These professionals are trained in a broad range of quantitative disciplines, including biostatistics, data science, epidemiology, mathematics, computational biology and related fields. Rather than functioning as a back-end service, core staff join research teams as scientific collaborators, contributing intellectually from study conception through publication. Core biostatisticians routinely serve as manuscript co-authors and, on appropriate projects, grant co-investigators.

Our integrated teams work collaboratively to support:

  • Study design and protocol development.
  • Statistical methodology development.
  • Implementation and interpretation of analyses.
  • Data management, quality assurance and reproducible workflows.
  • Advanced analytics, including predictive modeling, machine learning and large-scale data exploration.
  • Communication of results to ensure scientific validity, methodological rigor, and meaningful translation of findings into clinical and research settings.

Each role brings distinct expertise. Biostatisticians in the core provide leadership in study design, statistical methodology and the interpretation of results to ensure scientifically rigorous and valid conclusions. Data science analysts contribute advanced computational and modeling expertise to extract insight from complex and large-scale datasets. Statistical programmers safeguard data integrity and enable efficient, reproducible analyses through robust data management and well-engineered analytic workflows.

Core staff operate in a highly collaborative team science environment. They are supported by the expertise of doctoral-level faculty biostatisticians and faculty bioinformaticians from the Division of Clinical Trials and Biostatistics and the Division of Computational Biology. This structure ensures access to deep methodological expertise and promotes a model of scientific partnership.

The Biostatistics Core welcomes engagement at any stage, but early and sustained engagement with core staff and division faculty is strongly recommended. It's best to engage our experts during study conception and design — before data collection, and when applicable, before grant submission. This allows those faculty and staff to help shape the research question, study design, sample size and power, and analysis plan in ways that maximize rigor, efficiency and competitiveness.

The Biostatistics Core supports a broad range of project types, including genetic and genomic analyses, clinical trials, predictive modeling, outcomes research, translational research, and observational clinical studies. Each year, the core supports over 2,000 institutionally and nationally funded investigations, plus a multitude of large research programs. The core also develops and refines statistical methods and software, including more than 250 specialized SAS macros and R programs used by groups both internal and external to Mayo Clinic. Core staff reflect all three Mayo Clinic shields. They partner primarily in research while also contributing to education through teaching and lecturing and to clinical practice through the creation and evaluation of practice initiatives.

The Biostatistics Core serves all Mayo Clinic faculty and staff engaged in research. The core is located across Mayo Clinic's campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota and supports researchers at all three sites and across Mayo Clinic Health System. The core's academic home is the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, and it is part of the Division of Clinical Trials and Biostatistics at Mayo Clinic.

In addition to internal partnerships, the Biostatistics Core collaborates with external investigators and research organizations, extending Mayo Clinic's impact through national and international research efforts.

For more information, contact the core.