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 …
USC Stem Cell study points to a common ancestor for cells involved in hearing and touch
The sensory cells in the inner ear and the touch receptors in the skin actually have a lot in common, according to a new study from the USC Stem Cell laboratory of …
USC Professor Megan McCain crafts an approach to tissue engineering
Megan McCain has always liked using her hands to create things, ranging from art projects to human heart cells that grow on silicon chips. “I’ve always loved building things and doing crafts, …
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 …
Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC awarded research training grants from National Institutes of Dental and Craniofacial Research
The prestigious five-year training grants are meant to support tomorrow’s leading thinkers in craniofacial research as they launch their academic careers. The Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC has been awarded two …
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 …
AcuraStem awarded $1 million Department of Defense grant to develop ALS drug candidate
AcuraStem, a patient-based drug discovery platform company developing novel therapeutics for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and neurodegenerative diseases, has received an Amyotrophic Lat-eral Sclerosis Research Program (ALSRP) Therapeutic Development Award from the …
Marcella Birtele named Choi Family Postdoctoral Fellow at USC Stem Cell
In one sense, Marcella Birtele is following in her father’s footsteps: he works as an electrician in Italy, and she studies the electrophysiology of the brain as a postdoctoral fellow in Giorgia …
A quantum leap
Ostrow jumps to fourth top-funded U.S. dental institution by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. If a global pandemic was meant to slow researchers down in their quest for knowledge, …
Do our brains age faster than the rest of our bodies?
If you feel your brain power diminishing as you advance into middle age and beyond, blame your neural stem cells. In a new study published in Cell Stem Cell, a team led …
Chief Scientific Officer at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles appointed to CIRM Board
Pat Levitt, PhD, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ (CHLA) Chief Scientific Officer and Director of The Saban Research Institute, has been appointed to the board that oversees the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine …
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 …
USC Stem Cell scientists start a buzz around fruit flies in hearing research
Even though a fruit fly doesn’t have ears, it can hear with its antennae. In a new study published in the journal Development, USC Stem Cell scientists describe how adult flies can …
Scientists Justin Ichida and Dion Dickman: USC’s coolest tenured professors from Hawaii
Now that Justin Ichida and Dion Dickman are both tenured professors at USC, they no longer have to worry about who was the coolest kid in their elementary schools back in Honolulu. …
From grains to brains, USC scientist Jianfu (Jeff) Chen uncovers the roots of disease
Although USC scientist Jianfu (Jeff) Chen now studies human neurological disorders, he was originally more interested in organisms without brains, such as rice and wheat. “When I was about to go to …
Stem cells may correct deformity and restore brain function after childhood disorder
USC scientists have regenerated parts of the skull affected by a common birth defect called craniosynostosis. Using stem cells to regenerate parts of the skull, USC scientists partially corrected a skull deformity …
USC Stem Cell scientist Giorgia Quadrato receives a 2020 Mallinckrodt Grant
Giorgia Quadrato, an assistant professor in USC’s Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, was recently awarded an Edward Mallinckrodt Foundation (EMF) grant to further her research about modeling human brain …
Brain development and disorder research receives $1.5 million NSF boost
The human brain is an incredibly complex organ to study in its living tissue form. Researchers cannot experiment on human tissue directly, and animal models are often too different to human physiology …