Mayo Clinic has opened the Mayo Clinic “Department of Defense Medical Research Office” located in Rochester Minnesota. The objective is to be able to use a single point of contact that is able to link the research needs of DOD with Mayo Clinic investigators to improve access to funding to better serve DOD R&D priorities.
The Office now oversees Mayo Clinic’s portfolio of DOD-funded research which has evolved over Mayo’s long partnership with the Federal government. Today, dozens of Mayo researchers receive funding for special projects using new technologies and innovative solutions to support military readiness, functional restoration and rehabilitation after complex injuries, to restore health, and improve wellness in military populations.
According to Peter Amadio, M.D, Director of the Office and an Orthopedic Surgeon at Mayo Clinic, “The office and website are designed to strengthen this long-standing relationship and to not only match DOD research needs with the expertise of the Mayo Clinic, but also to accelerate the entire process from proposal development to funding the delivery of a completed project.”
Current projects include:
- Working with the Defense Health Board on vaccine research in translational immunovirology and biodefense
- Researchers as part of a national consortium, studying how to regenerate nerve cells for wounded veterans
- Ongoing research on how to use homemade supercomputers to develop pathogen countermeasures
- Providing for Aerospace Medicine Fellowships to enable work on various projects applicable to high altitude aviation and space exploration
- Developing motion training for war wounded amputees to bring evidence-based rehabilitation care to soldiers with injuries
- Creating the multidisciplinary simulation center training program called “Medical Readiness Training for Combat Zones
Go to www.mayo.edu/research/centers-programs/departments-defense-medical-research-office/overview for more information on the joint DOD/Mayo program.