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Long Cai

The Broad Foundation brings together stem cell scientists, engineers and physicians at USC and beyond

Developing new stem cell therapies requires more than a solo biologist having a eureka moment alone in the lab. Real progress relies on collaborations between biologists, engineers and physicians. That’s why The …

Time to eat

What and when we eat affects our immune system. Here’s how.

Professor Valter Longo, director of the USC Longevity Institute, is investigating how fasting and diets that mimic fasting’s effects can help immune function, including vaccine efficacy and the body’s response to infection …

Oliver Bell

Design redundancy is in our DNA

Design redundancy is not only an invention of engineers for building machines, but also a principle of nature for designing organisms. This principle is at play in the regulation of the genes responsible for directing stem cells to multiply themselves in the developing mouse embryo, as described in a new study in Science Advances.

hyperspectral fish

From detecting lung cancer to spotting counterfeit money, this new imaging technology could have countless uses

USC scientists have developed a new tool to peer more deeply and clearly into living things, a visual advantage that saves time and helps advance medical cures. It’s the sort of foundational …

In-Part Discover

USC finds new routes to industry engagement and funding

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 …

Vassilios Papadopoulos and his lab researchers have found a way to produce testosterone in the lab for the first time using a combination of stem cells, human collagen, nutrients and other ingredients. (Photo by Ed Carreon)

Breakthrough in testosterone-producing cells could lead to treatment for “low T”

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 …

Jean Rosenbaum

France-USA Stem Cell Symposium gathers la crème de la crème

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 …

The $10 million donation from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation will support the USC stem cell research center’s core facilities and training programs, enable recruitment and attract research funding. (Photo by Sam Comen)

$10 million gift from Broad Foundation advances USC stem cell research on aging-associated disease

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 …

Junior faculty (Photo by Sergio Bianco)

USC Stem Cell junior faculty balance babies with biomedical research

Growing stem cells isn’t just something junior faculty do in the lab. Eight of the junior faculty in the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine recently welcomed new babies into …

Embryonic stem cells that have differentiated into neurons (Image by In Kyoung Mah/Mariani Lab)

From restoring sight to reversing brain damage, USC stem cell researchers are making life-changing discoveries

If anyone has a clear vision of the power of stem cell cures, it’s Anna Kuehl. She suffered a retina-wrecking disease that cost her much of her sight before USC physicians surgically …

Fluorescent image of intestinal stem and progenitor cells. Cells like these can grow into engineered intestinal tissue in the laboratory. Eventually, Dr. Grikscheit hopes engineered intestine can help babies born with severe gastrointestinal challenges.

Tissue engineering: The big picture on growing small intestines

Babies born prematurely often face intense medical challenges, including intestines that are underdeveloped or diseased. While an intestine transplant can benefit some patients, many babies are simply too small to endure this …

Killifish

This tiny fish could unlock mysteries about growing old

Back in its native habitat, the African turquoise killifish wiggles from its egg, eats, spawns and dies — all within a few months. Life goes by fast when your home is a …

(Illustration by Chris Gash)

Eat less, live longer? The science of fasting and longevity

When it comes to what, when and how we eat, fasting — voluntarily abstaining from food for varying periods of time — is having a moment. It was the most popular diet …

Bérénice Benayoun (Photo courtesy of the USC Davis School of Gerontology)

Bérénice Benayoun honored for genetics research

The Genetics Society of America (GSA) and the Gruber Foundation have awarded Assistant Professor Bérénice Benayoun the 2019 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award for her research in genetics. The award, intended to …

Illustration of the colon

Fasting-mimicking diet holds promise for treating people with inflammatory bowel disease, USC study finds

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 …

From left, Lina R. Nih, stem cell scientists Daniel Wagner, Unmesh Jadhav, Karthik Shehkar and Anastasia Tikhonova (Photo by Sergio Bianco)

Stem cell scientists take it one cell at a time at the Junior Faculty Candidate Mini-symposium

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 …

(Illustration courtesy of CHLA)

Tracy Grikscheit: engineering new organs from living cells

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 …

Finley and Mumenthaler team up, using their different skills to lead the fight against colorectal cancer (Illustrated by: Tracie Ching)

National Cancer Institute award to support research on colorectal cancer at USC

A grant from the National Cancer Institute will advance researchers from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the Keck School of Medicine of USC in their fight against colorectal cancer. Stacey …

The core research facilities at USC's stem cell research center serve the scientific community throughout Southern California. (Photo by Sergio Bianco)

USC Stem Cell acquires two instruments to advance state-of-the-art cell sorting

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 …

USC researchers are focusing on a protein that is associated with our body clocks to see if it affects disease onset. (Illustration courtesy of iStock)

Disease risk seen in disrupted biological clock

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.