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Dr. 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.

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Building an Incubator for Medicine of the 21st Century

Building an Incubator for Medicine of the 21st Century

USC Stem Cell is pleased to introduce our new publication. We hope you’ll enjoy reflecting back on our history, while looking ahead to the transformative times to come. Read now at https://stemcell.keck.usc.edu/wp-content/themes/stemcell/incubator.

Kuo-Chang (Ted) Tseng from the Crump Lab and Michelle Hung from the Ichida Lab enjoy a beachside brainstorm.

Scientists feel the sand between their toes at the retreat for USC’s stem cell department

A pair of young scientists picked up a piece of driftwood and thoughtfully traced a series of letters in the wet sand of Ventura Beach. The word “microglia”—referring to the immune cells …

USC's stem cell research center

California’s biggest stem cell experiment: The impact of the stem cell ballot proposition at USC

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 …

Paula Cannon

Gene therapy research for HIV awarded $14.6 million NIH grant

An HIV research program led by scientists at USC and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has received a five-year, $14.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The team is advancing …

Kalya Stanten

Countdown to Commencement: USC Stem Cell master’s student Kalya Stanten follows the science

By following her love of science, USC master’s student Kalya Stanten has found herself in some very interesting places—including a virology lab at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m in Paula …

The Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Symposium sparked collaborations. (Photo by Sergio Bianco)

USC researchers converge at the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Symposium

“The field of stem cell biology is one of our great convergence opportunities,” said USC Provost Michael Quick, addressing an audience of biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers, clinicians and many others. This diverse …

Note to self (Photo by Sergio Bianco)

At the retreat for USC’s stem cell department, the students become the masters

Students and trainees took center stage at the annual retreat for USC’s Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. They presented their latest research to the 180 stem cell scientists who …

Larry Goldstein, the director of the stem cell program at the University of California, San Diego, and keynote speaker at the retreat for USC’s Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (Photo by Cristy Lytal)

Scientists get into detail at the retreat for USC’s stem cell department

“The process of disease is about detail,” said Larry Goldstein, the director of the stem cell program at the University of California, San Diego, and keynote speaker at the retreat for USC’s …

Kidney organoid (Image by Tracy Tran/McMcMahon Lab)

USC’s stem cell scientists secure the dollars to fight disease

The price of progress is not only the energy and talent of stem cell scientists, but also the research dollars that support their discoveries. In recent months, faculty members have secured numerous …

3-D printed Cas9 enzyme that snips a DNA sequence at a location identified by CRISPR. (Photo courtesy of the NIH 3D Print Exchange, National Institutes of Health)

USC Stem Cell scientists enter the conversation about CRISPR

CRISPR-Cas9 is a gene-editing technique that enables scientists to disable, replace or modify sections of DNA. It allows for unprecedented precision and speed in the field of genome editing. It has been used to …

Americans for Cures logo

Americans for Cures animations highlight stem cell clinical trials

How do clinical trials work? With the support of Proposition 71 and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), California stem cell scientists at USC and elsewhere are developing a new generation …

Motor neurons derived from an ALS patient (Image courtesy of the Ichida Lab)

USC announces winners of the Audrey E. Streedain Regenerative Medicine Initiative Awards

Two collaborative teams within USC Stem Cell are developing new approaches that could eventually help patients with heart disease, frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The teams are the winners of …

Paula Cannon (Photo by Don Milici)

USC and Sangamo researchers advance genome editing of blood stem cells

Genome editing techniques for blood stem cells just got better, thanks to a team of researchers at USC and Sangamo BioSciences. In an upcoming study in Nature Biotechnology, co-first authors Colin M. …

From left, John Zaia, Dale Ando, David Hardy and Paula Cannon (Photo courtesy of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine)

The road to a cure for HIV/AIDS

Something wonderful sometimes happens when scientists and the public get together to talk about research. All the jargon, all the technical language falls away, and it becomes instead a conversation between the …

USC graduate student Du Jiang (Photo by Cristy Lytal)

Tri-institutional Stem Cell Retreat brings together Broad centers from USC, UCLA and UCSF

Working alone, a scientist or university can only make so much progress in finding answers to basic questions or new treatments for diseases ranging from HIV to cancer to diabetes. That’s why …

Illustration of the HIV virus

CIRM-funded clinical trial aimed at blocking HIV/AIDS in people gets the go ahead

An innovative therapy using a patient’s own stem cells, modified to resist infection with the AIDS virus, has been given approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin a clinical …

USC PhD student Louise Menendez examines the prototype of a potential device to treat patients with liver disease. (Photo by Cristy Lytal)

“Million-dollar ideas” seminar

At a special seminar on February 24, USC Stem Cell Principal Investigators discussed their “million-dollar ideas” for creating new tools and technologies to usher in the era of regenerative medicine. They shared …

From left, Toshio Miki, Qi-Long Ying, Paula Cannon (Photos by Cristy Lytal and Don Milici)

Three USC researchers win $4.3 million in awards from California’s stem cell agency

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 …

Fred H. Gage delivered a brainy keynote address. (Photo by Cristy Lytal)

USC Stem Cell Symposium creates scientific synergy

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 …

Stem cells won the heart of clinical trial participant Fred Lesikar. (Photo by Cristy Lytal)

USC hosts California stem cell agency’s tenth birthday bash

Few 10 year olds have brought 10 potential medical treatments into clinical trials. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), however, is a truly exceptional 10 year old. In 2004, the people …

Paula Cannon, PhD