Stories
USC faculty member Rong Lu: Providing insights into stem cell biology in the context of aging and disease
Rong Lu is an associate professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, biomedical engineering, medicine, and gerontology at USC. She joins George Shannon, faculty member and host of the podcast “Lessons …
For USC Stem Cell faculty member Rong Lu, science is in her blood
When Rong Lu joined USC as an assistant professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine in 2014, she knew that earning tenure would figuratively require blood, sweat and tears. But after …
How alike are the cancer cells from a single patient?
Even within a single patient with cancer, there is a vast diversity of individual tumor cells, which display distinct behaviors related to growth, metastasis, and responses to chemotherapy. To carry out these …
USC Stem Cell scientist Rong Lu wins an NIH Emerging Investigator Award
Millions of blood cells are regenerated every second. To study the unique properties of individual blood forming stem cells and how they contribute to aging, leukemia and other medical conditions, USC Stem …
The Broad Foundation brings together stem cell scientists, engineers and physicians at USC and beyond
Developing new stem cell therapies requires more than a solo biologist having a eureka moment alone in the lab. Real progress relies on collaborations between biologists, engineers and physicians. That’s why The …
USC Stem Cell scientist Rong Lu named Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar
Why do some leukemia patients have more aggressive disease, and why do some of their cancer cells resist treatment? USC Stem Cell scientist Rong Lu is tackling these critical questions with $550,000 …
USC Stem Cell junior faculty balance babies with biomedical research
Growing stem cells isn’t just something junior faculty do in the lab. Eight of the junior faculty in the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine recently welcomed new babies into …
USC Stem Cell acquires two instruments to advance state-of-the-art cell sorting
When it comes to sorting cells or other small particles, there’s no better place to do so than USC. The university’s Flow Cytometry Facility recently acquired two top-of-the-line cell sorters, the BD …
Stem cell study offers clues for optimizing bone marrow transplants and more
Bone marrow transplants, which involve transplanting healthy blood stem cells, offer the best treatment for many types of cancers, blood disorders and immune diseases. Even though 22,000 of these procedures are performed …
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 …
USC Stem Cell and BCRegMed Virtual Symposium brings Canada to California
It didn’t require plane tickets to bring together scientists from USC Stem Cell in Los Angeles and BCRegMed in Vancouver. During October’s Virtual Symposium, videoconferencing technology enabled these scientists to share ideas …
CIRM Stem Cell Awareness Day: Science Career Videos
In honor of CIRM’s Stem Cell Awareness Day, USC Stem Cell invites you to explore careers in science. Meet progressive master’s student Carina Seah, PhD student Kimberley Babos, postdoc Jorge Contreras and clinical fellow Abigail Zamora.
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 …
When it comes to balancing the immune system, some blood stem cells are better than others
In your body, blood stem cells produce approximately 10 billion new white blood cells, which are also known as immune cells, each and every day. Even more remarkably, if some of these …
Broad Innovation Award winners work to develop cancer immunotherapy
Imagine an ever-renewing source of immune cells that can be engineered to attack cancer and infections. The winners of this year’s Eli and Edythe Broad Innovation Award at USC are already striving …
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 …
Can stem cells be tricked?
Riddle me this: how do you get stem cells to thrive outside of their natural environment? According to Keyue Shen, if all else fails, you can always trick them—with artificially engineered neighbor …
New USC stem cell course teaches how to design an experiment
For future scientists, few skills are more essential than the ability to design a good experiment. In a new spring 2018 course, SCRM 517 Historical and Contemporary Stem Cell Research, Professor Rong …
Whittier Foundation backs new group of research projects
The L.K. Whittier Foundation has been a critical source of funding for cancer research at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, supporting clinicians and …
Meet PhD student Lisa Nguyen, presenter at the ISSCR 2017 Annual Meeting
Ask Lisa Nguyen what gets her blood racing, and her answer will be hematopoietic stem cells, or HSCs. She’ll be presenting about HSCs, which form the blood and immune systems, at the …