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Overview

USC Stem Cell scientists are advancing our understanding of how the body develops, maintains and repairs the brain, nerves and senses. They are using stem cells to find new regenerative therapies for conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, neurodegenerative diseases, brain tumors, hearing loss and vision loss.

Statistics

  • Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the US. An estimated 5.5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease.
  • ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, causes progressive paralysis and usually results in fatal respiratory failure within three to five years of diagnosis.
  • Brain tumors are the most common cancer and leading cause of cancer-related death in children fourteen years and younger.
  • Twenty percent of Americans—or 48 million people—report some degree of hearing loss.
  • More than 20 million Americans report some degree of vision loss.

Researchers

Brain, Nerves and Senses News

Human induced motor neurons. Motor neurons are green, and neurons are purple. (Image courtesy of the Ichida Lab)

USC Stem Cell-led studies point the way to broadly effective treatments for ALS

Each year in the U.S., 5,000 patients receive a diagnosis of ALS, an incurable neurodegenerative disease that will likely kill them within two to five years. In the quest to find a …

The new lab’s collaborative structure promises to play a key role in the development of groundbreaking advancements in health care. (Photo/Steve Cohn)

New USC/CHLA cGMP Lab opens to accelerate next-generation cell therapy

A new laboratory designed to advance early-stage research into lifesaving, commercially viable therapies was celebrated on the USC Health Sciences Campus Tuesday night. Housed at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, the …

Neuronal specification is compromised in Zfp462 deleted cells. Immunofluorescence images of wildtype (WT) and Zfp462 deleted (Zfp462 KO) cells during neural differentiation. The neuronal lineage marker SOX1 is shown in green and the endodermal lineage marker FOXA2 is in magenta. Non-neural cells are detected during the neural differentiation of Zfp462 KO cells. © Bell Lab / NCB /IMBA.

Weiss-Kruszka syndrome and the failure to establish neuronal identity

Weiss-Kruszka syndrome is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by craniofacial anomalies, developmental delay, and autistic features. Researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the …

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Brain, Nerves and Senses Videos

Dr. Rong Lu’s lab studies stem cell coordination, regulation and malfunction from a single cell perspective. If you’re interested in studying stem cells or cancer at the single cell level, please email your CV to Dr. Rong Lu at ronglu@usc.edu. For more information, visit https://ronglulab.usc.edu.
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