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Ching-Ling (Ellen) Lien

California’s stem cell agency awards CHLA $5 million training grant

Stem cells are the seeds that grow our hearts, brains, lungs, intestines—every one of the body’s tissues and organs. By studying stem cells and their potential to replace damaged or dysfunctional cells, …

Tracy Grikscheit

USC pediatric surgeon aims to heal infants using stem cells

Tracy Grikscheit helps babies with digestive disorders. Stem cells could help her develop life-changing treatments. It’s an instinct many surgeons have: Whatever you have to remove, replace it with something better. Something …

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 …

Hirschsprung’s Disease

Growing nerve cells in the gut

The human body has what is sometimes called a “second brain” in the digestive tract. The enteric nervous system (ENS) performs many vital functions, including coordinating the movement of food to allow …

Fluorescent image of intestinal stem and progenitor cells. Cells like these can grow into engineered intestinal tissue in the laboratory. Eventually, Dr. Grikscheit hopes engineered intestine can help babies born with severe gastrointestinal challenges.

Tissue engineering: The big picture on growing small intestines

Babies born prematurely often face intense medical challenges, including intestines that are underdeveloped or diseased. While an intestine transplant can benefit some patients, many babies are simply too small to endure this …

(Illustration courtesy of CHLA)

Tracy Grikscheit: engineering new organs from living cells

Article courtesy of CHLA.org Tracy Grikscheit, MD, is a fixer. In the operating room at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, she specializes in helping babies born with severe bowel dysfunction. She’s one of …

Tracy Grikscheit (Image courtesy of CHLA)

Tracy Grikscheit awarded $1.3 million to study stem cell therapy for liver failure

Currently, the only therapy for metabolic liver disease is an organ transplant. Tracy Grikscheit MD, an attending physician and regenerative medicine scientist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, hopes to change that reality. …

From left, Broad Clinical Research Fellows Wan Jiao, Roshan Rajani and Anthony Squillaro (Photos courtesy of Wan Jiao, Cristy Lytal and Anthony Squillaro)

Broad Clinical Research Fellows strive to regenerate lymph nodes, liver and kidney

The lymph nodes, liver and kidney are not passive filters for toxins, but complex organ systems that perform an astonishing array of critical functions. To help patients who have suffered damage to …

Biodegradable scaffold (left) and human tissue-engineered liver (right) (Photo courtesy of The Saban Research Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles)

Functional human tissue-engineered liver generated from stem and progenitor cells

A research team led by investigators at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has generated functional human and mouse tissue-engineered liver from adult stem and progenitor cells. Tissue-engineered Liver …

From left, Broad Clinical Research Fellows Christopher Schlieve, Gene K. Lee and R. Kiran Alluri

USC Stem Cell names second cohort of Broad Clinical Research Fellows

The second cohort of Broad Clinical Research Fellows is making strides towards finding stem cell-based therapies for lymphedema in cancer patients, large bone fractures and short bowel syndrome.

Tracy C. Grikscheit (Photo courtesy of Children's Hospital Los Angeles)

Stem cell researcher Tracy Grikscheit awarded $7.1 million by CIRM

Tracy C. Grikscheit, a principal investigator with USC Stem Cell and The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, has received a $7.1 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative …

Clockwise from top left: Andre Luis de Castro Abreu, Victoria Forte, Kathy Schall and Rodrigo Martínez Monedero (Photos by Cristy Lytal)

USC Stem Cell selects inaugural Broad Clinical Research Fellows

This year, the Broad Clinical Research Fellowships are enabling physician-investigators to explore stem cell-based approaches related to four very different medical conditions: breast cancer, kidney disease, deafness and short bowel syndrome. Each …

Tracy C. Grikscheit (Photo courtesy of Children's Hospital Los Angeles)

Zebrafish provide a novel model to study short bowel syndrome

USC Stem Cell investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) are providing new hope for babies with short bowel syndrome (SBS) by developing a novel model of SBS in zebrafish, described in …

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 …

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 …

The Grikscheit Lab (Photo by Cristy Lytal)

Researchers grow functional intestine from human cells

A new study by researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has shown that small intestine grown from human cells replicates key aspects of a functioning human intestine. The small intestine they developed …

The Grikscheit Lab (Photo by Cristy Lytal)

Tracy Grikscheit explores frontiers of surgery, science and skiing

Video courtesy of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Tracy Grikscheit, MD, really has her priorities straight. “It goes: surgery, science, skiing. That’s the order,” said Grikscheit, principal investigator with USC Stem Cell and …

Andy McMahon, PhD, FRS (Photo by Cristy Lytal)

Stem cells prove their potency at CHLA annual symposium

The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Annual Symposium, held on Feb. 21, focused on the promise of regenerative medicine and cellular therapies — from curing HIV to building organs …

Elizabeth Fini (Photo courtesy of USC)

Keck School researchers to speak at World Stem Cell Summit

Faculty researchers and clinicians from the Keck School of Medicine of USC are among more than 170 speakers who will discuss their efforts to zero in on disease cures at an international …

Tracy C. Grikscheit, MD