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 …
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 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 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, …
Tracy Grikscheit awarded $1.3 million to study stem cell therapy for liver failure
Currently, the only therapy for metabolic liver disease is an organ transplant. Tracy Grikscheit MD, an attending physician and regenerative medicine scientist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, hopes to change that reality. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Growing hope: New organs? Not yet, but stem cell research is getting closer
If you lose a limb, it’s lost for life. If you damage a kidney, you won’t grow a new one. And if you have a heart attack, the scars are there to …
Growing hope: What are stem cells, and how does USC use them?
Stem cell therapies have accelerated at a promising pace, but how do they work? And what are stem cells?
Scientists launch global effort to find the next diabetes drug
USC researchers have launched a massive scientific effort to construct a detailed, virtual 3-D model of the pancreatic beta cell and its components — a global project that aims to one day …
At USC’s Junior Faculty Mini-Symposium, stem cell scientists build to understand
When physicist Richard Feynman died in 1988, he left a message scrawled across his chalkboard: “What I cannot create, I do not understand.” Twenty years later, scientists in a very different field …
What to know about fasting, aging, the “longevity diet” and when you should eat
Biochemist Valter Longo has devoted decades to discovering connections between nutrition and successful aging. He runs the Longevity Institute at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, which aims to extend healthy …
Bérénice Benayoun studies possibility of rejuvenating genes
Bérénice Benayoun, assistant professor at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and principal investigator with USC Stem Cell, explores the role of epigenetics—the ways that genes turn “off” or “on”—in the …