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Navigage, Rose Hills Foundations support Berenice Benayoun

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 $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 …

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 …

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 …

Andrew P. McMahon

McMahon named University Professor; Davies, Matarić and Pastor named Distinguished Professors

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.

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.

Ellis Meng and Michael Waterman are 2018 fellows in the National Academy of Inventors. (Photos courtesy of USC Viterbi School of Engineering)

Ellis Meng and Mike Waterman elected fellows of the National Academy of Inventors

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, …

The Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Symposium sparked collaborations. (Photo by Sergio Bianco)

USC researchers converge at the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Symposium

“The field of stem cell biology is one of our great convergence opportunities,” said USC Provost Michael Quick, addressing an audience of biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers, clinicians and many others. This diverse …

Valter Longo (USC Photo; Illustration by Time)

TIME names Valter Longo one of the 50 Most Influential People in Health Care of 2018

USC Leonard Davis School Professor Valter Longo, director of the USC Longevity Institute and USC Stem Cell principal investigator, has been named one of TIME’s the 50 Most Influential People in Health …

Eun Ji Chung (Photo by Michelle Henry)

Eun Ji Chung awarded NIH New Innovator Award

Eun Ji Chung, Gabilan Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has received the NIH New Innovator Award. Announced today by the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, Chung’s proposal was one of …

Andy McMahon (Photo by Phil Channing)

USC Stem Cell scientist Andy McMahon and collaborators tune into the organ concert

Every minute of every day, your organs are using a complex language to communicate with each other about the basic physiological processes necessary for life—everything from blood pressure regulation to pH balance …

Human gametes (Image by Karl-Ludwig Poggemann)

All about egg freezing: A Q&A with Dr. Richard J. Paulson, USC Fertility

If you’re not going to complete your family by age 35, it’s time to freeze your eggs, according to Dr. Richard J. Paulson, director of USC Fertility. Egg freezing offers a shot …

Nanoparticles move past the glomerular filtration barrier of the kidney to target diseased cells. (Image by Yekaterina (Katya) Kadyshevskaya from the USC Bridge Institute)

This tiny particle might change millions of lives

Remember the scene in the movie Mission: Impossible when Tom Cruise has to sneak into the vault? He had to do all sorts of moves to avoid detection. That’s what it’s like …

Developing human nephron, the filtering unit of the kidney (Image by Nils O. Lindström and Tracy Tran/McMahon Lab)

From perfectly punctual to fashionably late, it takes all kinds to build a kidney

Running early or running late can have big consequences—especially when it comes to the progenitor cells involved in human kidney development. According to a new study in Developmental Cell from the USC …

Engineered mouse cells (Image courtesy of Leonardo Morsut)

Synthetic “tissues” build themselves

How do complex biological structures—an eye, a hand, a brain—emerge from a single fertilized egg? This is the fundamental question of developmental biology, and a mystery still being grappled with by scientists …