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So far Mitch Medina has created 564 blog entries.

USC supporter John Reid weds — and presents wedding gifts to the Keck School

By Amy E. Hamaker

John and Karen Reid requested that in lieu of traditional gifts for their wedding, guests consider donations to the Darlene Dufau Reid Endowed Scholarship Fund. John and Karen Reid requested that in lieu of traditional gifts for their wedding, guests consider donations to the Darlene Dufau Reid Endowed Scholarship Fund.

When his wife, Darlene Dufau Reid, passed away after a long illness in 2008, John Reid (USC BS ’69), a Superior Court judge for 27 years who presently sits in the Santa Monica courthouse, was not sure love would ever find him again.

Then one day, John bumped into his future wife, Karen, by chance. “Darlene had been gone a couple of years and I was tired of eating my own cooking,” recalled John. “I wandered down to the pier in Malibu, and Karen was standing on the pier talking on the phone to her son. I looked at her, and she looked at me, and I couldn’t help myself — I asked her out to dinner. We stayed talking that evening until the restaurant closed.”

John and Karen were married on April 6, 2013. In lieu of gifts, the couple requested donations in support of the Darlene Dufau Reid Endowed Scholarship Fund at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. The scholarship is presented annually to an outstanding medical student. To date, donations in honor of the ceremony have reached nearly $13,000. Read More »

July 12th, 2013|Announcements|

Dept. of Ophthalmology announces new branding

Following the expiration of an agreement with the Doheny Eye Institute, the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Department of Ophthalmology will now be known by a new name, USC Eye Institute, under the campus clinical branding Keck Medical Center of USC.

The new name will be used throughout the organization, and signs bearing the new name will begin to appear in coming weeks. Newspaper and radio ads announcing the change have already begun running. Read More »

July 12th, 2013|Announcements|

KECK SCHOOL FETES NEW RECRUITS

Keck School of Medicine Dean Carmen A. Puliafito recently celebrated the recruitment of world renowned neuroscientists Arthur Toga and Paul Thompson — and more than 100 faculty, researchers and staff — to the Keck School. Read More »

July 12th, 2013|Announcements|

Birds of a feather flock together for stem cell research

By Robin Heffler

The cellular and molecular composition of feathers can be experimentally manipulated to test the hypothesis that certain molecular components may enhance or suppress pigment differentiation. The cellular and molecular composition of feathers can be experimentally manipulated to test the hypothesis that certain molecular components may enhance or suppress pigment differentiation.

To eventually use stem cells in regenerative medicine, scientists need to understand how stem cells become organized into particular tissue patterns and shapes. With that in mind, researchers at USC recently found clues by studying the cellular and molecular basis of complex pigment patterns in bird feathers.

Keck School of Medicine of USC researchers uncovered several fundamental rules of morphogenesis ─ the organizational process of functional cellular patterning. Their study appeared on April 25 in Science Express, the online version of the journal Science.

“Feathers are a good research model because they are unique, able to regenerate repetitively under normal conditions and are positioned at the surface of the body so that we can see their patterns,” said Cheng-Ming Chuong, the study’s team leader and professor of pathology at the Keck School. “Therefore their cellular and molecular composition can be experimentally manipulated to test the hypothesis that certain molecular components may enhance or suppress pigment differentiation.” Read More »

June 28th, 2013|Announcements|

USC study charts exercise for stroke patients’ brains

By Robert Perkins

A new study has found that stroke patients’ brains show strong cortical motor activity when observing others performing physical tasks — a finding that offers new insight into stroke rehabilitation.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a team of researchers from USC monitored the brains of 24 individuals — 12 who had suffered strokes and 12 age-matched people who had not — as they watched others performing actions made using the arm and hand that would be difficult for a person who can no longer use their arm due to stroke — actions such as lifting a pencil or flipping a card. Read More »

June 28th, 2013|Announcements|