Birmingham Mayo Exchange Fellows

Through a generous donation, we are able to offer University of Birmingham clinicians and BHP partners and NHS consultants the chance to apply for a Mayo Fellowship of between 2-6 months, with salary, travel, accommodation and consumable costs covered across any of the three Mayo sites of Rochester, Minnesota; Phoenix, Arizona or Jacksonville, Florida.

Please note that a written report will be required at the end of the fellowship.

The Mayo Fellowship Programme is generously supported by JABBS.

Applications will be considered all year round and will be put to the panel members for approval as and when received. Please feel free to contact Yvonne Dawson in the first instance to either submit an application or any queries you may have.

Applicants must be able to articulate a clear research programme and evidence support for the proposal from clinical connections at Mayo.

If interested, please read the guidelines before completing the application form. This application form should be sent to Yvonne Dawson at y.dawson@bham.ac.uk along with a letter of support from your Mayo contacts and your current CV.

Please ensure that the information provided on the application form shows the vision for your research and the name of your University of Birmingham supervisor.

Clinical Associate Professor in Endocrinology and Diabetes
Department of Metabolism and Systems Science
University of Birmingham

I visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, from May to June 2017 and was hosted by Dr Irina Bancos (Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism and Nutrition). I had the opportunity to observe and appreciate the “Mayo approach” of world-renowned specialists in the fields of adrenal, pituitary, bone and thyroid disorders. 

Overall, I feel that that the Mayo visit was a complete success and a unique experience that has left a long-lasting impression. It is my sincere wish and goal to develop a career as an academic endocrinologist and to perform internationally leading research following a true clinician scientist approach.

The Birmingham Mayo Academic Exchange programme fellowship provided the ideal platform to set this goal in motion and represented a crucial step in my career development. 

Clinician Scientist in Endocrinology and Honorary Consultant Endocrinologist
Department of Metabolism and Systems Science
University of Birmingham

I visited the Mayo Clinic from 30 March 2015 to 22 May 2015 and was hosted by Dr Adrian Vella whose research interests are in human metabolic physiology and in particular in the regulation of insulin secretion and the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

I returned having learned a range of new techniques for my research and having established good links with a world-leading department in the field of human metabolic research that will be useful in the future. Overall, I feel that all my personal objectives were met and that the Mayo visit was a complete success.

Endocrine Fellow
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, USA

I visited Birmingham from the Mayo Clinic during November/December 2016 and was hosted by Professor Wiebke Arlt (Department of Metabolism and Systems Science). I am grateful for the amazing opportunity to be mentored by researchers in the University of Birmingham’s Endocrinology Research Unit as this has allowed me to expand my knowledge and explore new approaches in endocrine practice.

Professor of Neurology, Bloomer Chair of Neurology
Department of Metabolism and Systems Science

I visited the Mayo Clinic Phoenix Arizona between 5^th November and 3^rd December 2016 was hosted by Professor David Doddick, clinical and academic lead for the headache centre at the Mayo clinic and he is also the President of the American Headache Society. 

As a result of this visit I have gained significant insight and ideas for innovating the Clinical Headache service in Birmingham. But additionally I have formed important collaborations to enable future grant submissions. 

I plan to organise a short further visit to enable preliminary data to be collected and to plan the details of a grant submission (between University of Birmingham and the Mayo clinic). It has been a unique opportunity that will enable me to build future research collaborations and significantly enhance my own academic portfolio. 

Department of Nephrology and Transplantation
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham

I visited the Mayo Clinic, Rochester for a period of 8 weeks during July and August 2016. I am, and will remain, hugely grateful for the opportunity afforded to me in regard to visiting the Mayo Clinic. It was a most valuable experience, which I believe has broadened my understanding of research methodology, clinical practice and Health Care systems.

I am especially grateful that the Trustees considered it useful that a more senior clinician such as myself be given this opportunity (as opposed to the more traditional involvement of research fellows). I suspect what I learnt from the experience (and hopefully what I offered in reciprocity) was accordingly different, but no less valuable.

BHP Clinician-Scientist
Consultant Paediatric Haematologist/ Stem Cell Transplantation
Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences
University of Birmingham

I visited the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota for 3 months from March 2019 and was hosted by Dr Alexandre Gaspar Maia and Dr Mrinal Patnaik. I predominantly worked in the labs and helped establish with the Mayo Clinic a new methodology for single cell ATAC-seq which was used on a variety of samples from patients with cancer, in order to understand gene regulation on an individual cell level in cancer.

I have been able to bring this technique back to Birmingham. I also attended haematology rounds and clinics in order to appreciate how the Mayo attempted to treated some very difficult and refractory cancers. This is an amazing fellowship that allowed me to advance my skills as a clinician and a scientist and am very grateful to the trustees; I would highly recommend this opportunity to anyone.