Three scientists from Keck Medicine of USC have won grants exceeding $4.3 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) for research that includes creating a temporary liver for patients, finding novel ways to treat immune disorders and blood diseases, and developing new animal models for heart failure, diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases. The grants, …

In 2008, USC broke ground on an $80 million building dedicated solely to stem cell research and regenerative medicine. The plans called for a monolithic structure clad in black marble and reflective glass, rising five stories and enclosing nearly 90,000 square feet. When it was completed, the university had a stunning new contemporary research space …

New research from an international team led by USC scientists set out to learn how feathers developed and helped birds spread across the world. Flight feathers, in particular, are masterpieces of propulsion and adaptation, helping penguins swim, eagles soar and hummingbirds hover. Despite such diversity, the feather shares a common core design: a one-style-fits-all model …

How does the skin develop follicles and eventually sprout hair? A USC-led study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), addresses this question using insights gleaned from organoids, 3D assemblies of cells possessing rudimentary skin structure and function—including the ability to grow hair. In the study, first author Mingxing Lei, a …

Just as there are times when two heads are better than one, there are times when two labs are better than one. Thanks to the new Doerr Stem Cell Challenge Grants, teams of postdoctoral researchers from different USC labs have each received up to $10,000 in funding to pursue interdisciplinary one-year projects.

Previously, when Andy McMahon, head of USC Stem Cell, wanted a three-dimensional image of a kidney, he would ship the organ to Australia. Now, he can send the organ down the hall to the university’s new specialized microscope — built by a team of five undergraduates from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering as part …

If there’s a cure for male pattern baldness, it might hurt a little. A team led by USC Stem Cell Principal Investigator Cheng-Ming Chuong has demonstrated that by plucking 200 hairs in a specific pattern and density, they can induce up to 1,200 replacement hairs to grow in a mouse. These results are published in …

Provost Michael Quick convened the inaugural USC Stem Cell Symposium with a straightforward truth about the future of regenerative medicine: “it will take a dedicated community of scholars across the disciplines to have maximum impact.” The January 16 symposium brought together precisely such a community, with speakers hailing from USC’s schools of medicine, dentistry, gerontology …

Keck School of Medicine of USC scientist Cheng-Ming Chuong has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Chuong, professor of pathology at the Keck School and principal investigator with USC Stem Cell, is the only USC faculty member to be elected this year. The award, given to AAAS …

A team of USC Stem Cell researchers led by principal investigator Krzysztof Kobielak and co-first authors Yvonne Leung and Eve Kandyba has identified a new population of nail stem cells, which have the ability to either self-renew or undergo specialization or differentiation into multiple tissues.

Regenerative medicine may offer ways to banish baldness that don’t involve toupees. The lab of USC scientist Krzysztof Kobielak, MD, PhD has published a trio of papers in the journals Stem Cells and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that describe some of the factors that determine when hair grows, when it …

Alligators may help scientists learn how to stimulate tooth regeneration in people, according to new research led by the Keck School of Medicine of USC. For the first time, a global team of researchers led by USC Professor Cheng-Ming Chuong has uncovered unique cellular and molecular mechanisms behind tooth renewal in American alligators. Their study …

To eventually use stem cells in regenerative medicine, scientists need to understand how stem cells become organized into particular tissue patterns and shapes. With that in mind, researchers at USC recently found clues by studying the cellular and molecular basis of complex pigment patterns in bird feathers. Keck School of Medicine of USC researchers uncovered …

It was standing room only at the first Stem Cell Symposium hosted by the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC.

Your hair — or lack of hair — is the result of a lifelong tug-of-war between activators that wake up, and inhibitors that calm, stem cells in every hair follicle on your body, according to Cheng-Ming Chuong, MD, PhD, professor of pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Building on research reported last …

In one of the first studies to look at the population behavior of a large pool of stem cells in thousands of hair follicles – as opposed to the stem cell of a single hair follicle – Keck School of Medicine of USC scientists deciphered how hair stem cells in mice and rabbits can communicate …

On June 14, Songtao Shi of the Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology and Gregor Adams of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, co-organized the 2010 Symposium on the theme “Stem Cell Research and Application.”