Mrinal S. Patnaik MD

Mrinal S. Patnaik, M.B.B.S., is a physician-scientist at Mayo Clinic whose research interests include understanding the development of blood cancers such as chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, and acute leukemia. Dr. Patnaik studies genetic and epigenetic changes that can be seen in the blood and bone marrow of people with these diseases. Dr. Patnaik also studies precancerous changes in the blood and bone marrow, a condition called clonal hematopoiesis, and why these precancerous conditions eventually progress to blood cancers.

Dr. Patnaik is a physician-scientist with the Division of Hematology, Department of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Minnesota. He is the chair of the Acute Leukemia and Myeloid Neoplasms group in Rochester and is also the Scientific Director of the Epigenetics Developmental Laboratory and the Epigenomics Program. His main clinical and research interests lie in precision genomics and epigenetics, and the application of the same to myeloid neoplasms and bone marrow failure syndromes. He directs the Mayo Clinic Clonal Hematopoiesis Clinic (CHIP), the Bone Marrow Failure Syndrome Clinic, and the Short Telomere Clinic.

Dr. Patnaik's research focuses on methods to interrupt the early stages of cancer development before overt neoplasia occurs. By using high-fidelity single-sequencing techniques, Dr. Patnaik and his team are working to define therapeutic vulnerabilities that can lead to clinical trials and effective drug development. He is also helping organize efforts to implement comprehensive clinical genomic sequencing for patients, including whole-exome, transcriptome, and whole-genome sequencing.