Arthritis and other age-related conditions are the leading cause of disability in the US. A team led by Denis Evseenko has found a drug with the potential to promote cartilage regeneration and relieve painful inflammation from osteoarthritis. In collaboration with the startup Carthronix and Jay R. Lieberman, chair and professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Evseenko will launch a phase 1/2A clinical trial to test the drug in patients with osteoarthritis. The drug will be injected into the knees of up to 70 participants.

With support from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the Evseenko lab is also developing cartilage implants made from stem cells. Surgeons could use these cartilage implants, known as Plurocart, to repair sports-related knee injuries, which affect more than 10 percent of people under 50 years old.

Using a 3D scaffold seeded with stem cells, Yang Chai’s team is pioneering strategies to treat craniosynostosis, a birth defect that restricts brain growth due to the premature fusion of skull bones.

Chai has also shown that a similar scaffold approach, using stem cells derived from dental pulp, may help heal skull injuries that are too large to repair naturally.

Other USC Stem Cell scientists are advancing our understanding of how the body develops, maintains and repairs the muscles, cartilage and skeleton. They are using stem cells to create regenerative therapies for hard-to-heal bone fractures, muscular dystrophies and other musculoskeletal disorders.