{"id":31715,"date":"2026-03-17T18:46:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=31715"},"modified":"2026-03-17T20:11:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T20:11:54","slug":"macalester-innovation-scholars-present-research-at-mayo-clinic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/macalester-innovation-scholars-present-research-at-mayo-clinic\/","title":{"rendered":"Macalester Innovation Scholars present research at Mayo Clinic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This winter, four Macalester students tackled a complex biomedical technology project on mesothelioma\u2014a rare cancer that develops in the linings of the lungs, abdomen, or heart and claims thousands of American lives each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their charge: analyze three biomarkers to predict patient response to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies. At the end of their project, they presented their recommendations to a team of Mayo Clinic researchers and licensing associates in Rochester as part of the 2025\u20132026 Innovation Scholars program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Innovation Scholars is a nationally recognized experiential learning program that brings liberal arts undergraduates together to explore the intersection of science, healthcare, economics, and entrepreneurship. Working in teams, students analyze real-world challenges and recommend next steps for inventions and emerging products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Each year, it is a joy to see a new team of students with different skill sets and backgrounds work together on the complex and important issues brought forward,\u201d said program coordinator Liz Bolsoni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Macalester\u2019s team featured:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Bailey Lengfelder \u201926, economics and women&#8217;s, gender, and sexuality studies major<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tran Dong Nguyen \u201928, economics and statistics major<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gabriella Nieves \u201926, statistics major<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Moriah Weiss \u201926, biology major<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was very impressed and pleased to see this team gain confidence in their role on the team and trust in each other, which culminated in a well-constructed report and engaging visual presentation,\u201d said Bolsoni.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>University of St. Thomas MBA student Stephanie Ayala led the team, with additional guidance from Macalester faculty Felix Friedt, Taylor Okonek, Bridgit Jordan, and Philip Rivera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, Innovation Scholars (formerly Mayo Innovation Scholars) has seen 94 Macalester alumni participate since 2006\u2014reflecting the college\u2019s long-standing dedication to interdisciplinary learning and community engagement.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Celebrating 20 years of Innovation Scholars, Macalester students bridge the gap between lab research and the marketplace through a complex Mayo Clinic project.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":31717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[677],"class_list":["post-31715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","tag-student-research-and-creativity","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_link_url":"","custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","article_type":[8],"post_thumbnail_style":"default","flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_downloads":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31719,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31715\/revisions\/31719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}