MAC5 is short for the Mayo Clinic ASU Center for Cancer-related Convergence, Cooperation and Collaboration. The new effort will leverage the distinct roles of basic science, technology and clinical medicine to translate discoveries into clinical advances.

"We have been working for the past couple of years with the leaders at Mayo Clinic to build and enhance a relationship between their doctors, who are at the forefront of health care, and ASU's scientists and engineers," said ASU President Michael M. Crow. "We find that the collaborative potential between Mayo and ASU is very high. The openness and intellectual fusion of our educational, scientific, and cultural linkages are at the early stages of what we hope to be a significant and profound relationship to improve health care," Crow said.

"Part of our heritage at Mayo Clinic has been the teamwork demonstrated to bring different disciplines together for the benefit of patients," said Victor Trastek, M.D., CEO of Mayo Clinic in Arizona. "With ASU, we are now just scratching the surface of a great opportunity to work together with scientists, clinicians and patients. This type of collaborative effort is the future in caring for patients and developing the new types of science, devices and therapeutics to advance medicine."

"The alignment in vision and teamwork at the interface between basic science and clinical medicine builds on the complementary strengths of both institutions with a critical goal of bringing value to health care and our patients," said Laurence Miller, M.D., and director for research at Mayo Clinic.

Cancer remains the leading cause of death in the U.S., with over a half
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Contact: Joe Caspermeyer
joseph.caspermeyer@asu.edu
480-727-0369
Arizona State University
16-Feb-2006