Mayo Clinic aims for more Pentagon funding

The Mayo Clinic, with military ties that stretch back to the Civil War, is making a push to more aggressively pursue a larger share of the $900 million-plus spent annually by the Pentagon on medical research. The medical giant has opened a Department of Defense Medical Research Office in Rochester and hired McAllister & Quinn, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm, to help procure more federal funding. Dr. Peter Amadio, medical director of Mayo's DOD Medical Research Office, said that while Mayo has some defense contracts, there's "an opportunity for us to do better."