Anson Tam is an aspiring doctor from Honolulu, who brings a hardworking, sun loving, laid back Hawaiian attitude to swimming, research and surgery. Tam was initially inspired to become a doctor by the primary care physicians in his hometown. Through the years, he saw many of them working hard to care for their patients, despite …

How do bones heal, and how could they heal better? The answer to these questions may lie in a newly discovered population of “messenger” cells, according to a recent USC Stem Cell study published in the journal eLife. “With nearly half a million patients in the U.S experiencing failed bone repair every year, stimulating these …

Dental enamel is tricky stuff. Even though it’s the body’s hardest material, if it wears away from cavities, acidic food or drinks or overbrushing, it doesn’t regenerate.  All that could change in the future, though. Ostrow Professor Janet Moradian-Oldak has been developing a special hydrogel that can promote the growth of an enamel-like surface on …

Noted life scientist, teacher and academic leader Carol L. Folt will become the University of Southern California’s 12th president, the USC Board of Trustees announced today. Formerly chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), Folt brings decades of experience in academia to USC, launching a new era for the 139-year-old university. She …

How do our skeletons form during embryonic development? To approach this question, PhD student Dion Giovannone, research scientist Sandeep Paul and the USC Stem Cell laboratory of Gage Crump looked to our not-so-distant relative: the tiny, transparent zebrafish. Crump explains their latest findings, published in eLife, about how embryonic cartilage transforms into adult bone. How …

USC will recognize philanthropists Edythe and Eli Broad and five other honorary degree candidates for their leadership in government, science, philanthropy, humanitarianism and the arts at the university’s 136th commencement ceremony on the University Park Campus on May 10.

What if a special diet could reduce inflammation and repair your gut? USC researchers provided evidence that a low-calorie “fasting-mimicking” diet has the potential to do just that. Published in the March 5 edition of Cell Reports, the study reports on the health benefits of periodic cycles of the diet for people with inflammation and …

Cells should be treated as individuals, according to the scientists who presented research at the Junior Faculty Candidate Mini-symposium, hosted by USC’s Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine on February 5. While cells have traditionally been evaluated as populations, these up-and-coming scientists shared their frontier approaches for studying the specific features and activities …

Giorgia Quadrato loves a good challenge. That’s why USC’s newest assistant professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine currently spends her time growing 3D networks of human nerve cells, called brain organoids, in the laboratory. “I think studying the brain is, by definition, probably one of the most challenging fields of study,” she said. …

Article courtesy of CHLA.org Tracy Grikscheit, MD, is a fixer. In the operating room at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, she specializes in helping babies born with severe bowel dysfunction. She’s one of the leading pediatric surgeons specializing in intestinal disorders, and saving the lives of infants is a major part of her job. Grikscheit, an …

Interim USC President Wanda M. Austin has appointed Andrew P. McMahon as University Professor, and Kelvin J. A. Davies, Maja J. Matarić and Manuel Pastor Jr. as Distinguished Professors.

What causes joints to age, lose their regenerative capacity and succumb to arthritis, and how can we slow this process? To address these questions, the National Institutes of Health have awarded a $1.69 million research project grant to investigator Denis Evseenko, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery and stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at the …

When it comes to sorting cells or other small particles, there’s no better place to do so than USC. The university’s Flow Cytometry Facility recently acquired two top-of-the-line cell sorters, the BD FACSymphony and the BioRad S3e, thanks to generous support from several USC sources.

Bone marrow transplants, which involve transplanting healthy blood stem cells, offer the best treatment for many types of cancers, blood disorders and immune diseases. Even though 22,000 of these procedures are performed each year in the US, much remains to be understood about how they work.

Justin Ichida keeps his research patient-based. That’s why Ichida, an assistant professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and his startup company AcuraStem participated in the ALS Association Golden West Chapter Walk to Defeat ALS at Exposition Park in Los Angeles.

Approximately 50 million Americans suffer from autoimmune disease, according to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association. This includes the millions suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Researchers at USC have developed novel small molecule drugs in regenerative and anti-inflammatory medicine that aim to provide relief and healing for patients with these diseases.

Oihana Iriondo, the newest Broad Postdoctoral Fellow, has always been curious about how things work.

Could we be one step closer to developing a biological treatment for craniosynostosis? Building upon a body of research that demonstrated that the premature fusion of skull bones — which can cause a host of problems as an infant’s brain continues to grow — is caused by a lack of stem cells, Associate Dean of …

USC scientists report that a novel time-keeping mechanism within liver cells that helps sustain key organ tasks can contribute to diseases when its natural rhythm is disrupted.

Ellis Meng, a professor of biomedical engineering and electrical engineering, who holds the Gabilan Distinguished Professorship in Science and Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, and University Professor, Michael Waterman, who holds the USC Associates Chair in Natural Sciences, and is Professor of Biological Sciences and Mathematics in the Dornsife College of Letters, …