ZNI researcher receives grant to study the changing nature of amyloid proteins

By Amy E. Hamaker

Amyloid fibers, abnormal protein aggregates, have been associated with more than 20 serious human diseases, including neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases.

However, Ansgar Siemer, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute within the Keck School of Medicine of USC, is working on some amyloid fibers that can actually be necessary for long-term memory in fruit flies and other organisms.

Siemer will have the chance to research how this is possible thanks to a recent three-year award from the Whitehall Foundation. … Read More »

August 13th, 2013|Announcements|

CHLA team receives $1.25 million from NIH to continue research on pollution effects in Mongolia

Mongolia’s economic growth rate in 2012 was 12.3 percent — one of the highest in the world — but that same growth has caused rapid urbanization. These changes have resulted in serious health problems that Mongolia currently lacks the capacity to address. International support has come from volunteers, including a team of physicians and health-care professionals from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA).

For the last 15 years, David Warburton, MD, professor developmental biology program in the Department of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and part of the Saban Research Institute of CHLA, has been volunteering in Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaan Baatar and the surrounding Gobi Desert.

Recently, Warburton and his colleagues received a five-year, $1.25 million grant from the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences to continue their research on air pollution and to build capacity among child health experts and government agencies in Mongolia. … Read More »

August 13th, 2013|Announcements|

USC researchers examine cancer incidence among Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders

Based on a comprehensive study that included more than half the U.S. Asian-American and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) populations, a team of scientists led by members of the Keck School of Medicine of USC and Cancer Prevention Institute of California (CPIC) has produced the first-ever analysis of national cancer incidence trends among 11 Asian-American and NHOPI groups.

The researchers examined rates and trends from 1990 through 2008, using data collected by 13 registries of the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program. The groups studied in detail include Asian Indians/Pakistanis, Chinese, Filipinos, Guamanians/Chamorros, Japanese, Kampucheans (Cambodians), Koreans, Laotians, Native Hawaiians, Samoans and Vietnamese. … Read More »

August 12th, 2013|Announcements|

Ruth K. Peters, 69

Ruth K. Peters, ScD (nee Ruth Ann Kloepfer), died from complications of progressive supranuclear palsy on July 20. She was 69. … Read More »

August 12th, 2013|Announcements|

CLEAN HANDS = DISEASE PREVENTION

(Photo/Christine Tam) (Photo/Christine Tam)

Hundreds of people joined in a demonstration in proper hand hygiene given by members of Keck Medical Center of USC at a health fair on July 28. The … Read More »

August 9th, 2013|Announcements|