How alike are the cancer cells from a single patient?
Even within a single patient with cancer, there is a vast diversity of individual tumor cells, which display distinct behaviors related to growth, metastasis, and responses to chemotherapy. To carry out these …
Drug-like molecule points to novel strategies for cancer therapy
A decade ago, genome sequencing revealed a big surprise: about 50 percent of human cancers are linked to mutations in what are known as epigenetic regulators, which control the activity of genes. …
USC Stem Cell: An incubator for medicine of the 21st century
Just over a decade ago, USC was a university with a few scattered stem cell biologists, and a vision for total transformation. The university was committed to designing a unique “incubator” for …
Cycles of a fasting-mimicking diet help mice live longer, healthier
While many diets have been studied for effectiveness in preventing obesity and heart disease in both mice and humans, research on the effects and benefits of short, periodic cycles of fasting on obesity and heart health are lacking. In a new USC study on the health effects of a low-calorie diet that mimics …
Bérénice Benayoun receives prestigious investigator-focused grant
The Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award directly supports scientists, providing stability, flexibility and more opportunities for breakthroughs. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences has awarded an R35 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) …
Top scientists and research institutions propose improvements to cell- and gene-based therapy development
Led by a USC cell and gene therapy researcher, an international coalition calls for more transparency and reproducibility in research and development of breakthrough treatments. Scientists around the world are achieving significant …
USC Professor Scott E. Fraser redefines impossible problems
USC Professor Scott E. Fraser is known for inventing new microscopes and other tools to observe living, developing embryos. But one of his lab’s most important pieces of technology filters coffee instead …
Bérénice Benayoun receives GSA Nathan Shock New Investigator Award
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA)—the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging—has chosen Assistant Professor Bérénice Benayoun of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology as the 2021 …
The Baxter Foundation advances USC research on optic nerve disease and colorectal cancer
For over 60 years, the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation has supported innovative biomedical research at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, each year granting $100,000 awards to two …
USC celebrates Robert E. Maxson’s lifetime of achievement and adventure
USC Emeritus Professor Robert E. Maxson has an understated explanation for why he’s flown so many planes, sailed so many boats, skied so many mountains, played so many guitars, taken so many …
USC Stem Cell scientist Leonardo Morsut awarded $2.5 million NIH grant to explore “synthetic” embryonic development
Whether in an earthworm or a human being, developmental processes are driven by complex networks of genetically-encoded signals that enable cells to take cues from each other and their environment. To begin …
CHLA, Keck School, Keck Medicine and USC Norris partner on cell therapy program as construction on new facility begins
The essence of translational medicine is taking an idea from the drawing board and “translating” it into a real-world treatment that helps patients. The winding road of that process takes plenty of …
For USC scientist Xi Chen, a chicken is more than just an egg’s way of making another egg
USC postdoctoral researcher Xi Chen knows that you have to break a few eggs in order to grow chicken stem cells. His work on maintaining embryonic stem cells (ESC) from chicken eggs …
Mohamed Abou-el-Enein named Executive Director of USC/CHLA Cell Therapy Program
Mohamed Abou-el-Enein, MD, PhD, MSPH, has joined the Keck School of Medicine as the inaugural Executive Director of the Joint USC/CHLA Cell Therapy Program. He began his post Jan. 4. Abou-el-Enein will …
USC biological imaging innovator elected to National Academy of Medicine
Scott Fraser, Provost Professor of Biological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Physiology and Biophysics, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Pediatrics, Radiology and Ophthalmology, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Fraser, …
A bench-to-bedside approach to Wilms tumor
Stefano Da Sacco, PhD, calls Wilms tumor “an underdog” in the research world. “If you go to the American Urological Association or other meetings, there aren’t many presentations or discussions about Wilms …
California’s biggest stem cell experiment: The impact of the stem cell ballot proposition at USC
In 2008, USC broke ground on an $80 million building dedicated solely to stem cell research and regenerative medicine. The plans called for a monolithic structure clad in black marble and reflective …
USC’s Scott E. Fraser elected to National Academy of Medicine
USC biophysicist Scott E. Fraser, PhD, has as been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the organization announced Monday. He’s among 100 new members of the Academy. “For integrating biophysics, quantitative …
Ebony Flowers receives fellowship from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Enrichment Program
Ebony Flowers has already received three fellowships during her year-and-a-half as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at USC. First, she was awarded the Choi …
Studies suggest a fasting diet could boost breast cancer therapy
A USC-led team of scientists has found that a fasting-mimicking diet combined with hormone therapy has the potential to help treat breast cancer, according to newly published animal studies and small clinical …