"The goal of this agreement is ambitious: to revolutionize medical practices for cancer-related diseases. We want to shift medicine toward an earlier, preventative, and individualized approach to medical care," said George Poste, director of the Biodesign Institute.

Also assuming leadership roles in creating the center were Keith Frey, M.D., chair of the Information Systems Steering Committee at Mayo Clinic, and Michael Tracy, director of the Center for Cancer Research and Office for Strategy and Research Alliances at the Biodesign Institute.

"Our scientists will work with the Mayo Clinic to provide the patients of Phoenix with the best medicine possible--including superior ways to diagnose and detect diseases earlier, and to treat patients with more sophisticated and effective medicines," said Tracy.

MAC5 represents the largest collaborative effort to date between Mayo Clinic and ASU. It builds on the historical research teamwork of ASU and Mayo Clinic that has grown in recent years to include a pilot research seed grants, joint faculty appointments, and shared educational programs.

The agreement establishes a physical space on Mayo's Scottsdale campus, in the Mayo Clinic Collaborative Research Building. This 110,000 square foot facility will include a new home for MAC5, with approximately 9,000 square feet of space for MAC5 personnel. Several staff members will have joint appoints at Mayo Clinic and ASU. MAC5 will combine the efforts of Mayo Clinic physicians with the capabilities of several ASU programs. This includes the new School of Computing and Informatics and the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Department of Computer Science and Engineering, led by Sethuraman Panchanathan, and three centers at the Biodesign Institute: the Center for Applied NanoBios
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Contact: Joe Caspermeyer
joseph.caspermeyer@asu.edu
480-727-0369
Arizona State University
16-Feb-2006