Our story

Mayo Clinic began as a single-physician medical practice in Minnesota in 1864. Guided by our mission and values, we have since then become one of the largest not‐for‐profit, academic health systems, top-ranked for quality more often than any other health care organization.

With operations in five U.S. states and a growing international presence, more than one million people from all 50 U.S. states and nearly 140 countries come to Mayo Clinic for their care each year. We are committed to curing disease, connecting with patients where they are, and transforming how we cure.

Mayo Clinic has a history of changing the industry through innovation, and is credited with many important medical contributions. This firsthand understanding of the value of bringing new ideas to market is the reason why we established a model for innovation and collaboration with industry to drive new treatments and cures to benefit patients at scale, fast.

The impact of innovation

The research we do and the care we provide are constantly infused with new knowledge. This means we can leverage this knowledge to provide innovative treatments for serious or complex medical challenges faster, and more efficiently, than almost anywhere else.

  • Hundreds of millions of dollars invested annually to generate new human studies
  • 3,800+ researchers relentlessly pursue discoveries
  • 12,000+ human studies underway to solve the world’s most challenging and complex medical problems

Mayo Clinic staff collaborates with industry to improve patient care through research agreements, invention licenses, and consulting activities, facilitated by our technology transfer office, Mayo Clinic Ventures. This collaboration produces:

  • More than 500 invention ideas disclosed annually
  • 100 new patent applications filed each year

Mayo Clinic Ventures also offers funding opportunities including early stage seed, later stage translation, and other funding from philanthropic sources.

“It is a great thing to make scientific discoveries of rare value, but it is even greater to be willing to share these discoveries and to encourage other workers in the same field of scientific research.”

– William J. Mayo, M.D.

Innovation Exchange

This brings us to the new Innovation Exchange, a membership-based platform created to further industry collaboration, accelerate commercialization, and as a way to put all of our minds together to help patients.

We launched Mayo Clinic Innovation Exchange to provide internal innovators and external entrepreneurs and startups throughout the health care industry with premier medical and business insights, as well as the connections needed to bring their breakthrough innovations to market.

Benefits of membership

When startups, industry, and medical insights come together, incredible things happen. An Innovation Exchange Membership provides connections to the right people, places, and resources to accelerate breakthrough advances in health care treatments and cures.

Members have access to renowned medical insights, business services, engineering and IT consulting, and educational opportunities typically only accessible to large-scale innovation or R&D departments. And how you connect is up to you, either onsite or from anywhere in the world.

For example:
  • Business strategy consulting
  • Marketing planning
  • Legal advising
  • More high-quality services through a premier resource network of business, technology and academic collaborators

Our location and amenities

Innovation Exchange is located on the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville campus in Florida, in the Discovery and Innovation Building. Facilities are complete with co-work space, conference rooms, and makerspace to build prototypes—which has been designed and outfitted specifically for collaboration and to serve members.

In addition, wet lab and private office spaces are available for rent, contact us for availability and rates.

The Discovery and Innovation building, a 75,000 square feet facility, is shared by Lung Biotechnology PBC, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics, and holds perfusion suites to test and prepare lungs for transplantation, and stem cell regeneration and advanced bio-manufacturing facilities operated by United Therapeutics and the Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics.

Built to minimize impact on our environment, the building has an abundance of energy-saving features such as self-tinting dynamic windows and solar panels which fully power the first floor.

Meet our leadership

Our leadership team is the driving force behind the powerful resources available through the Mayo Clinic Innovation Exchange. And with extensive experience in all stages of innovation, and specific knowledge about every part of the process, our leadership team can be a valuable advisory resource itself.

Dr. .Charles Bruce

Charles Bruce, M.B., Ch.B.

Medical Director, Mayo Clinic Innovation Exchange

Dr. Charles Bruce serves as chief innovation officer for Mayo Clinic in Florida, medical director of the Mayo Clinic Innovation Exchange, assistant medical director for the Department of Business Development, and as a director for business development in the Center for Regenerative Medicine. He is a professor of Medicine and practicing cardiologist, a researcher, and inventor.

Dr. Bruce is an accomplished innovator who has helped create seven startup companies. He is named on nearly 100 technology invention disclosures and a patent inventor on more than 160 patent filings, with 34 issued patents to date. Thirty-three of his technologies have been licensed or optioned. Dr. Bruce was named the 2023 Mayo Clinic Distinguished Inventor, an award recognizing innovative inventors and presented to a member of the Mayo Clinic voting staff whose career demonstrates great distinction in innovative and significant contributions to improving people’s health.

His unique perspective into the challenges of health care delivery is shaped by his medical experiences in South Africa and the United States. He serves on the Boards of BioFlorida and SolasCure.

Jennie Kung

Jennie Kung

Vice Chair, Mayo Clinic Innovation Exchange

Jennie Kung is vice chair of the Mayo Clinic Innovation Exchange. She brings an array of rich experiences across Fortune 500 and mission-driven healthcare institutions to the Exchange — most recently as an administrator at UCLA Health, where she built innovative clinical and operational programs across the enterprise.

Previously, she facilitated Johnson & Johnson’s partnership and global expansion efforts. Jennie spent the early part of her career in capital markets consulting with Deloitte in London, New York, and San Francisco. She credits her time at The Walt Disney Company, creating world-wide immersive experiences, as inspiration for leveraging design-thinking to reimagine person-centered care innovations.

Jennie earned her MBA from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business as a Society and Business Fellow, and her undergraduate degree from Claremont McKenna College. She is also a recipient of the Cambia Health Foundation’s Sojourns Scholar Award.