Mayo Clinic's overall Mount Everest team: From left, Bryan Taylor, Ph.D.; Alex Kasak; Amine Issa, Ph.D.; Andrew D. Miller; Bruce Johnson, Ph.D.; Doug Summerfield, M.D.; and Joel Streed.

It's a natural laboratory for studying heart disease, lung problems, muscle loss, sleeping disorders and new medical technologies. It's also the highest mountain in the world. It's Mount Everest in Nepal, and its extreme altitude puts climbers under the same conditions experienced by patients with heart disease, obesity or problems associated with advanced age.

To take advantage of that, Mayo Clinic researchers have joined an expedition to Everest with National Geographic, The North Face and Montana State University. The Mayo Clinic group is monitoring up to nine climbers from base camp for the duration of the climb, which runs from mid-April to mid-May. The Mount Everest expedition is the latest field study by Mayo Clinic physiologist Bruce Johnson, Ph.D., who focuses on the body's function under extreme conditions.

Joining Dr. Johnson at Mount Everest are three other Mayo Clinic investigators: physician-researcher Douglas T. Summerfield, M.D., and scientists Bryan J. Taylor, Ph.D., and Amine N. Issa, Ph.D. Mayo Clinic research assistant Alexander J. Kasak also is part of the group. And Mayo Clinic has even sent along its own reporter to cover the research expedition — Joel P. Streed of the Mayo Clinic News Network is blogging and shooting video from base camp. Follow Everest expedition coverage on the Advancing the Science blog and on Twitter at #MayoClinic #onEverest.

— Volume 8, Issue 1