Mayo Clinic launches Precure Research to detect and prevent diseases years before symptoms appear

Mayo Clinic Launches Precure Research Initiative

Mayo Clinic has launched Precure Research, an initiative focused on uncovering the earliest biological shifts in disease development long before symptoms manifest1

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. The program aims to identify, predict and prevent diseases by examining the hidden period between health and disease onset. By the time conditions like Alzheimer's, heart failure, or cancer are diagnosed, they may have been developing silently for years, leaving measurable traces through protein shifts, metabolic changes, and immune responses that were previously impossible to detect.

Combining AI and Multi-Omics for Early Detection

The Precure Research initiative integrates data from genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, clinical records, wearable technologies, and artificial intelligence in healthcare to understand disease origins1

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. This comprehensive approach enables researchers to predict risk earlier and create new opportunities for disease prevention. AI analyzes billions of data points simultaneously to reveal patterns that would otherwise remain hidden, transforming biological samples into actionable insights about disease mechanisms. These insights drive the discovery of new biomarkers and therapies while informing smarter clinical trials.

Early Discoveries Show Promise

The initiative is already generating significant findings. Mayo Clinic scientists have identified inherited risks for cancer and cardiovascular disease in nearly 2,000 people, many with no previous indication of being at risk2

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. Studies demonstrate that certain precancerous changes can be detected years before cancer develops. Researchers have shown that AI can identify signs of pancreatic cancer years before diagnosis, while subtle biological changes linked to Alzheimer's begin decades before memory loss occurs. Investigators are also using AI, genomics and wearable technologies to identify inherited heart disease before heart failure develops.

Understanding the Exposome

Precure Research examines how environmental and lifestyle factors influence health over a lifetime through what scientists call the exposome—the sum of environmental exposures and their effects on human biology1

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. These influences include air, water, diet, pollutants, heavy metals, pesticides, physical activity, sleep, stress, noise and light. "The air we breathe, the food we eat and the places we live leave a biological imprint," says Dr. Konstantinos Lazaridis, the Carlson and Nelson Endowed Executive Director of Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine and director of Precure Research. "Understanding those accumulated influences is essential to understanding why disease develops in one person and not another." Researchers can now measure many exposures directly in blood and other biospecimens, with early efforts focusing on heavy metals, pesticides and microplastics.

Building an Unprecedented Research Ecosystem

Underlying Precure Research is a new research ecosystem designed to study health and disease at unprecedented scale2

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. The initiative aims to build Mayo Clinic's largest integrated collection of biospecimens and scientific and health data to accelerate disease prediction and prevention. "Genomics showed us the blueprint, the underlying architecture of human biology," Dr. Lazaridis explains. "Now we're watching that structure in motion—shifting, adapting, unfolding over time, shaped by the world around us and inside us, ultimately influencing the unique lives we each live."

Targeting Major Chronic Diseases

The initial focus includes diseases of the brain, heart, kidneys, liver and lungs, along with biological pathways such as inflammation, oxidative stress, aging and metabolic dysfunction1

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. Specific conditions under investigation include chronic liver disease, chronic kidney disease, and pulmonary fibrosis. The exposome research also captures protective influences, including nutrients and bioactive compounds that may support resilience and regulate inflammation, aging and metabolism.

Extending Healthspan Through Prevention

The long-term goal of intercepting chronic diseases focuses on extending healthspan—the number of years people live in good health, free from chronic disease and disability2

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. "Precure Research marks the beginning of the next era of scientific discovery and its translation into patient care," Dr. Lazaridis states. "We are building the analytical and clinical tools needed to investigate questions that medicine has long recognized but has not been able to fully answer in ways that directly benefit patients." The initiative is part of Mayo Clinic's Bold. Forward. strategy to Cure, Connect and Transform healthcare, helping define a future in which disease is identified earlier, understood more completely and intercepted before it takes hold.