Ensuring lifespan health is a major challenge for medicine in the 21st century. Regenerative medicine is poised to address this challenge by using an understanding of how our body systems are built, maintained, and repaired. Stem cells are central to regenerative approaches, because of their power to generate new tissue. As a world leader in this field, USC Stem Cell brings together scientists, engineers, and clinicians across the university and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) to develop the regenerative therapies of the future.
USC-led clinical trials of a stem cell-derived therapy have shown promise in treating age-related blindness caused by macular degeneration. New trials are expected for conditions ranging from arthritis and sports-related injuries to the neurodegenerative disease ALS, to a devastating congenital disorder known as craniosynostosis, which impedes the skull’s expansion, restricting brain growth and causing neurocognitive defects.
The nucleus for these efforts is the Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC, which hosts world-class laboratories and shared core research facilities. The center prepares the next generation of scientists through undergraduate summer research programs, master’s and PhD degrees, and postdoctoral and clinical fellowships. It also houses USC’s stem cell department, which has recruited more than 23 new faculty who have established innovative research programs across the university.
With this strong base and opportunities afforded by a new USC Translational Hub building that will house 80 research groups, a new USC cell therapy manufacturing facility, and the renewal of funding of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the time is right for the university to accelerate stem cell research into the clinic.
How You Can Help
Your gift can advance USC Stem Cell priorities in critical ways:
Your gift can help USC Stem Cell recruit new faculty. You can establish an enduring legacy through the naming of the research space and new endowed chairs.
You can provide the type of research support that is critical to maximizing the potential of all faculty and for developing new collaborative and competitive research programs. With a gift to the USC Stem Cell Collaborative Research Program, you can support multi-faculty, early-stage projects, helping to develop new areas of research and clinical application that will be competitive for National Institutes for Health (NIH), Department of Defense (DOD), CIRM, and other public or private funding.
Training the next generation of researchers and clinicians in regenerative medicine and educating more broadly on the career opportunities provided by the growth of regenerative medicine is central to our mission. Support is welcome at all levels of our educational mission and plays a particularly critical role in meeting our commitment to diversity in all our programs.
A gift in support of our biological imaging and stem cell isolation facilities will enhance state-of-the-art support services that underpin all our translational research efforts. These facilities are made widely available across the biomedical research community, amplifying the impact of your gift.
If you would like to discuss funding opportunities, please contact Jessie Stone, Executive Director of Development for USC Stem Cell, at jessie.stone@med.usc.edu.