• Previous Page

Mayo Clinic Research in Jacksonville

"To heal the sick and advance the science." Charles H. Mayo

Griffin (left) and Birdsall (right) buildings

Griffin Building

Birdsall Buidling

It takes comprehensive research programs to achieve the goals that Dr. Charles H. Mayo mentioned nearly 80 years ago. With the help of many benefactors, Mayo Clinic has established such programs in Jacksonville, Fla., along with ambitious plans to broaden them, says Robert Smallridge, M.D., Director of Research.

Large, multifaceted programs in basic science research and patient studies have been established on the campus for nearly 15 years. The Griffin and Birdsall research buildings house basic science efforts, which focus on cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Patient studies, or clinical research, occur in the Cannaday and Davis buildings, as well as Mayo Clinic hospital.

While these programs occupy different buildings, they are connected through Mayo's emphasis on improving patient care, which encourages collaboration between scientists and their physician colleagues. This "bench-to- bedside" culture is so deeply ingrained that perhaps nowhere in the world is the distance between laboratory research and improved patient care as short as at Mayo. This distance is so easily traveled that all three Mayo campuses place special emphasis on "translational research," which literally translates laboratory research into new and more effective ways to fight diseases.

This approach to research has produced outstanding results for the Jacksonville campus, which has National Institutes of Health-sponsored centers in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and cancer. About 200 clinical studies are under way in neurology, oncology and several medical and surgical disciplines, including: cardiology, orthopedics, transplantation and gastrointestinal disorders.

Future research in Jacksonville will continue to focus on neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. But it will also incorporate several other themes that Mayo Foundation has identified for emphasis: endocrine-metabolic disorders, gastrointestinal disease and cardiovascular disease. A supporting theme for all of these areas of emphasis is biotechnology, which includes genomics and proteomics. All research will fit under the umbrella of translational research because improving patient care is the ultimate goal.