University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic brief Senate committee on state-funded research and medical-training partnerships

Officials from the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic presented to a Senate committee on the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics and on how state appropriations support medical education and residency programs.

Peter Crawford, vice dean for research at the University of Minnesota Medical School, described the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics (a collaboration among the University of Minnesota, the Mayo Clinic and the state formed in 2003). Crawford said the partnership has distributed about $167 million competitively to 279 research and infrastructure projects over two decades and that nearly $43.9 million of that total has been allocated to Alzheimer's disease and related-dementia research. He said the program has helped spin out 22 startup innovations and that 16 have reached clinical…