Mayo Clinic Bioservices
The world's largest research biobank
It may not look impressive on the outside. A non-descript former warehouse. There’s no big sign or impressive entry. Inside, the workspaces and lab are clean, organized, and efficient. Even the new expansion space isn’t particularly fancy. But what’s happening here is what some have called “the most ambitious and far-reaching medical research program in American history.”
The Mayo Clinic Bioservices facility is home to the national Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Cohort Program biobank. And inside is a repository of biologic samples from thousands of individuals. Up to one million or more unique DNA samples. When combined with expansive health questionnaires and medical histories, this emerging approach to disease treatment and prevention can analyze and consider an individual’s unique genes, environment and lifestyle. Which in turn, allows researchers and doctors to develop better diagnoses, earlier interventions, more efficient drug therapies, and customized treatment plans.
Our team led the design of both the original development and recent expansion. Converting a former warehouse into secure, safe, automated and highly efficient home within which Mayo can store and curate more than 35M biospecimens. And this home has expanded a community of individuals who typically never interacted before. Now fostering an unprecedented resource for researchers working to understand what influences health and disease.
