The six-member team landed at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Saturday night. The researchers were monitoring a group of climbers to study how high altitude impacts the heart, lungs and sleep.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic say heart attacks in Olmsted County dropped by one-third after Minnesota adopted a law banning smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants. The leader of Mayo's study tells Reuters other risk factors -- cholesterol, blood pressure, obesity -- stayed the same, leaving the reduction in second hand smoke as the apparent explanation for the decline.

Steven VanNurden is currently the chair of Mayo Clinic Ventures. Under his guidance, the division has commercialized more than 2,000 technologies; was granted more than 1,200 patents and helped form more than 45 start-up companies. VanNurden will begin his new role as President and Chief Executive of the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority in late May.

The team of six scientists are expected to reach a base camp at 18,000 feet Tuesday. They'll spend the next two weeks monitoring a group of climbers to study the effects of high-altitude.

A case that could have big implications for patent law and the medical profession has reached the country's top court. MPR reports that lawyers for the Mayo Clinic on Wednesday morning will argue that a rival's blood-test patent goes too far. They say the patent also tries to cover the test's results. Prometheus sued Mayo for patent infringement after the clinic created its own blood test.

The Supreme Court sided unanimously with Mayo in a patent dispute with California-based Prometheus Laboratories. The clinic had used a blood test developed by Prometheus until 2004, when it developed its own in-house test. Prometheus sued for patent infringement, but Mayo argued that using test to measure a natural bodily process is not patent eligible.

In their lawsuit the Justice Department and four whistleblowers claim Mayo billed the federal government for thousands of lab tests that were never done. The suit contends Mayo routinely billed Medicare and Medicaid for two sets of pathology tests, even though only one was conducted.