Department/Center Faculty
- Andrew P. McMahon, PhD, FRSW.M. Keck Provost and University Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, and Biological Sciences; Chair, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine; Director, Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USCDr. McMahon’s laboratory explores the mechanisms that maintain stem/progenitor cells and regulate their differentiation to mature cell types of different organ systems, particularly the kidney. By combining genetic and genomic approaches with high resolution imaging, his group is aiming to obtain a deeper understanding of stem cell biology and to develop novel therapeutic strategies for regenerative medicine.
- Albert E. Almada, PhDAssistant Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. Almada’s laboratory is investigating one of the greatest mysteries in regenerative biology: how stem cells rebuild functional tissues and organs after traumatic injury. His multidisciplinary team models this biological phenomenon in skeletal muscle, where they discover new pro-regenerative molecules and evaluate their therapeutic potential.
- Oliver Bell, PhDAssistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. Bell's lab aims to illuminate the epigenetic mechanisms that establish and maintain stable gene expression states. Ultimately, we aim to unravel the crosstalk between epigenetic regulation and cell plasticity.
- Michael Bonaguidi, PhDAssistant Professor, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. Bonaguidi and his team investigate brain development, adaptation and aging through the lens of individual neural stem cells. His laboratory takes an integrative approach to establishing fundamental principles of tissue plasticity with the purpose of identifying and overcoming the limits of endogenous brain repair.
- Paula Cannon, PhDDistinguished Professor, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Pediatrics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. Cannon’s research is focused on viruses, stem cells and gene therapy. The viruses that her laboratory studies are HIV-1 and several biodefense related viruses, such as Ebola and Junin, that cause severe viral hemorrhagic fevers.
- Yang Chai, DDS, PhDUniversity Professor, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, and George and MaryLou Boone Professor of Craniofacial Molecular Biology; Director, Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology; Associate Dean of Research, Ostrow School of Dentistry of USCDr. Chai’s laboratory is interested in early craniofacial development and malformations, including the molecular regulation of cranial neural crest cells. His laboratory has developed genetically engineered mouse models, and has made important discoveries about the mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) niche in the craniofacial region and about utilizing MSCs with 3D printed scaffolds for tissue regeneration.
- Ya-Wen Chen, PhDAssistant Professor, Medicine, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. Chen's lab uses human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) as a model to study the mechanisms of lung injury repair. The goal is to apply hPSC-derived lung stem/progenitor or mature airway/lung epithelial cells to facilitate lung injury repair, stem cell therapy, and regenerative medicine.
- Gage Crump, PhDProfessor, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Integrative Anatomical SciencesDr. Crump uses zebrafish to understand how the cartilages and bones of our faces are patterned during development. His lab is discovering the local tissue-tissue interactions that control skeletal differentiation and morphogenesis in vivo, and also exploring novel ways of regenerating bone in adults.
- Denis Evseenko, MD, PhDAssociate Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineThe Evseenko Lab research program is designed to form a bridge between basic studies of early embryogenesis, stem cell biology, and the clinically relevant application of stem cell and small molecule-based therapies for degenerative joint disease known as osteoarthritis as well as chronic inflammatory autoimmune diseases of the joint such as rheumatoid arthritis.
- Scott E. Fraser, PhDProvost Professor, Biological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine; Director, Science InitiativesDr. Fraser has a long-standing interest in the imaging and molecular analysis of intact biological systems, and has been developing new technologies for novel assays. His current research centers on the high-content imaging of embryonic zebrafish and analysis of craniofacial development in avians and mice.
- Senta Georgia, PhDAssistant Professor, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles; Pediatrics, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, USCDr. Georgia’s research involves the regeneration of insulin-producing, pancreatic beta cells as a potential therapeutic for patients with type 1 diabetes. Some of her recent work describes how an enzyme DNMT1 is critical to stem cells differentiating into pancreatic beta cells.
- Justin Ichida, PhDJohn Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation Associate Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine; New York Stem Cell Foundation-Robertson InvestigatorDr. Ichida’s research focuses on how genetic and environmental factors contribute to human neurodegenerative disease. His laboratory uses cellular reprogramming and stem cell technology to build patient-specific in vitro models of neurodegenerative disease, enabling the screening of drug-like compounds in search of potential therapeutics.
- Unmesh Jadhav, PhDAssistant Professor, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. Jadhav's laboratory explores epigenetic control mechanisms regulating cell plasticity in the intestine.
- Zhongwei Li, PhDAssistant Professor, Medicine, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. Li and his team aim to bridge basic studies of kidney organogenesis and translational applications of stem/progenitor cell-based kidney regeneration and disease modeling, with the long-term goal of rebuilding the kidney. They achieve this by combining state-of-the-art stem cell technologies and engineering methodologies.
- Nils Lindstrom, PhDAssistant Professor, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. Lindstrom's lab studies the molecular mechanisms that control how progenitors that exist during development differentiate into the broad range of cell types that underpin adult organ function. The lab integrates single-cell omic approaches with new microscopy and computational tools to understand how genetic changes cause abnormal differentiation in the kidney and model these genetic changes in the renal stem-cell derived organoid with the aim of identifying new treatments for kidney disease.
- Thomas Lozito, PhDAssistant Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. Lozito's research compares skeletal regeneration in lizards and salamanders. The ultimate goal is to apply this knowledge to improve regeneration in humans.
- Rong Lu, PhDRichard N. Merkin Assistant Professor, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, Medicine, Gerontology; Leukemia & Lymphoma Society ScholarDr. Lu studies stem cell coordination, regulation and malfunction from a single cell perspective, using mouse hematopoietic stem cells as a model system. Research in her laboratory is focused on understanding the differences between individual stem cells and how they are coordinated in sustaining the common blood supply.
- Francesca Mariani, PhDAssociate Professor, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Integrative Anatomical SciencesDr. Mariani’s laboratory studies the development and repair of the mammalian skeleton, with an emphasis on the ribs and handplate. They use standard and conditional knock-out techniques in mouse models and mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells.
- Robert E. Maxson, PhDEmeritus Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineThe overall interest of Dr. Maxson's laboratory is the molecular genetic basis of embryonic pattern formation. They focus on processes that regulate the development of the calvaria, the flat bones that compose the top of the skull.
- Megan McCain, PhDAssistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. McCain’s group leverages techniques in tissue engineering to understand mechanisms of development and disease on the cell and tissue level. They develop and utilize tools that can probe structure-function relationships in engineered cells and tissues across multiple spatial and temporal scales.
- Leonardo Morsut, PhDAssistant Professor, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Biomedical EngineeringDr. Morsut is developing synthetic biology approaches for mammalian multicellular systems. His laboratory is engineering synthetic cell-cell communication pathways to advance tissue engineering applications as well as the fundamental understanding of multicellular dynamics.
- Giorgia Quadrato, PhDAssistant Professor, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. Quadrato's laboratory focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular basis of human brain development and disease. By combining the use of emerging models of the human brain with single cell omics approaches, the laboratory is aiming to identify cell type specific disease mechanisms, and above all, new treatments for human neurodevelopmental disorders.
- Amy Ryan (Firth), PhDAssistant Professor, Medicine, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. Ryan (Firth) uses induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) generated from skin biopsies to study human lung diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. She combines gene editing, iPSC technologies and directed differentiation: 1) to generate reproducible models of respiratory diseases in a dish; 2) to generate chimeric animal models to understand disease development and progression; and 3) to utilize these models in high-throughput screening.
- Neil Segil, PhDProfessor, Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, USC Tina and Rick Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck SurgeryHearing loss and balance disorders affect more than half of adults in the US by retirement age, and loss of sensory hair cells in the inner ear is the major contributor. The long-term goal of Dr. Segil’s laboratory is the regeneration of these sensory hair cells of the inner ear.
- Qi-Long Ying, MD, PhDProfessor, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Integrative Anatomical SciencesDr. Ying’s research focuses on understanding how embryonic stem cells decide whether to self-renew or to differentiate.
- Min Yu, MD, PhDRichard N. Merkin Assistant Professor, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative MedicineDr. Yu researches the mechanism of cancer metastasis, the major cause of cancer-related death. Her laboratory is gaining a better understanding of the cancer stem cell properties in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and obtaining novel insights on how to target these rare populations.