The 34 students in USC’s master’s program in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine have at least two things in common. First, they’re smart, with an average incoming GPA of 3.4. And second, they all seemed to enjoy the boba tea served at this year’s Student Orientation at the Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center …

New research from an international team led by USC scientists set out to learn how feathers developed and helped birds spread across the world. Flight feathers, in particular, are masterpieces of propulsion and adaptation, helping penguins swim, eagles soar and hummingbirds hover. Despite such diversity, the feather shares a common core design: a one-style-fits-all model …

Call them recreational athletes. Couch-to-5K joggers. Weekend warriors. Whichever name you use, they’re the ones who wait all week to hit the soccer field, basketball court or running trail on Saturday morning. They’re up at 5 a.m. for a long run before work or playing softball until the lights switch off at night. They might not …

Story courtesy of In-Part Over the last year, Dr. Qing Liu-Michael, Program Director at USC Stem Cell and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of Southern California (USC), has been using IN-PART’s Discover service to find new streams of collaboration with companies proactively seeking academic …

Professor Janet Oldak has been selected as a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The prestigious honor is bestowed upon members through nominations by their AAAS peers. Oldak has been selected for her outstanding contributions to molecular mechanisms in biomineralization, assembly and function of inherently disordered matrix proteins for development …

More than 3 million dental implants have been placed in the mouths of U.S. patients, and that number rises by 500,000 each year. While implants help many people restore their oral health, they come at a cost. Nearly 15 percent of patients with implants develop peri-implantitis, an infectious disease that triggers an immune response of …

USC researchers have successfully grown human, testosterone-producing cells in the lab, paving the way to someday treat low testosterone with personalized replacement cells. In Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists describe how they transformed stem cells into functioning Leydig cells — the cells in the testes that produce the male sex hormone. “Our …

Bangyan Stiles, PhD, professor of pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences at the USC School of Pharmacy, and colleagues from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering were awarded a three-year, $636,141 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for the project “Robust Inference in the Presence of Data Heterogeneity and Structured Missing Data.” Sze-chuan Suen, PhD and Meisam …

Microcephaly is a condition where the circumference of an individual’s head is smaller than normal. It can be caused by genetic abnormalities as well as fetal exposure to drugs; alcohol; certain viruses, such as Zika virus; or toxins during pregnancy. It’s rare — there are fewer than 200,000 cases a year in the United States. …

Some students sell blood plasma to make extra cash during graduate school. Thomas Lozito, a new assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery and stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at USC, sold poison dart frogs to ward off the impecunity of the PhD years. “When I was in high school and all the way up to …

Associate Dean of Research Yang Chai PhD ’91, DDS ’96 has been awarded a five-year, nearly $2 million grant by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) for research focused on better understanding the molecular regulatory mechanisms of cleft palate. It’s the fourth time the grant has been renewed, continuously supporting this research …

The USC Epstein Family Center for Sports Medicine at Keck Medicine of USC, which specializes in treating sports-related and recreational injuries affecting the shoulder, knee, hip and elbow, recently announced the appointment of Frank Petrigliano, MD, as the chief of the center and head team physician for the Los Angeles Kings hockey team. He also …

For the first time ever, the City of Los Angeles hosted the world’s largest stem cell conference. By choosing Los Angeles as the host city for this major annual meeting, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) acknowledged the city’s growing importance as a hub for the biosciences, as well as the world-class research …

Nearly half of all birth defects involve the face and skull and, for the most part, scientists remain unclear as to why most occur. To better serve families at risk for these conditions, scientists need a comprehensive and systematic understanding of how the faces of healthy children form and what goes wrong to cause common …

To figure out how the body changes over time, researchers are increasingly looking to understand epigenetics, the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself. This scientific endeavor extends to teeth as well. Associate Dean of Research Yang Chai PhD ’91, DDS ’96 has …

Science was the common language at the first France-USA Stem Cell Symposium, held at the Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC. The event brought together over 100 stem cell scientists from France and the United States on the eve of the field’s largest annual conference—the International …

From catching cognitive impairment earlier to understanding the genetics of age-related disease and health disparities, USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology faculty conduct exciting research supported by organizations committed to helping others. The Navigage Foundation awarded grants for pilot research projects led by USC Leonard Davis faculty members Berenice Benayoun and Mireille Jacobson. Jacobson, an …

When Denis Evseenko was still a student at Novosibirsk State Medical University in southern Siberia, he began pondering the meaning of life. “I was reading a lot of philosophic things [saying that] everything is pointless because you will die,” he said. “And the only one thing that makes it not completely pointless is that you …

USC’s groundbreaking stem cell research and training programs have received a major boost thanks to a $10 million gift from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. The donation is part of the foundation’s latest $30 million funding initiative to support its namesake Eli and Edythe Broad stem cell research centers at USC, UCLA and University …

Professor Janet Moradian-Oldak received a 2019 Basic Research in Biological Mineralization Award at the International Association for Dental Research’s (IADR) General Session and Exhibition in mid-June. The award — one of 17 Distinguished Scientist Awards — is one of the most prestigious awards bestowed by the IADR. It is meant to stimulate, encourage and recognize …