Grace Aldrovandi, MD, professor of pediatrics, pathology and molecular microbiology and immunology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, has been awarded $17 million by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of … Read More »
Celebrating the move to its new home at 830 S. Flower St., Keck Medicine of USC’s Downtown Los Angeles practice held a festive grand opening in February.
The event highlighted the office’s convenient location, improved access and expanded services for patients … Read More »
Celebrating the move to its new home at 830 S. Flower St., Keck Medicine of USC’s Downtown Los Angeles practice held a festive grand opening in February.
The event highlighted the office’s convenient location, improved access and expanded services … Read More »
By Amy E. Hamaker
USC President C. L. Max Nikias describes USC’s strengths and challenges at his annual address to the Health Sciences Campus faculty on Feb. 11.
Photo/Tom DeSanto
The future of online education in higher learning, the global and local nature of university activities and the reintroduction of humanistic principles were topics touched on by USC President C. L. Max Nikias, PhD, in his address to Health Sciences Campus faculty on Feb. 11 at Aresty Auditorium.
Nikias discussed the changing face of higher learning, noting that online courses at USC are leading the way in terms of maintaining academic rigor and integrity. USC will not offer massively open university courses or online degrees for undergraduates, he said.
However, USC’s masters, executive and graduate programs will reach 7,600 students globall
y and bring in $123 million in revenue this year, a figure that is unprecedented for a top American research university.
Nikias expects that all USC schools will have some online offerings by next year, and hopes to double enrollment and degree offerings online over the next five years. … Read More »
By Jon Nalick
Owen Bennett-Jones, freelance British journalist and a host of “Newshour” on the BBC World Service, captivated audiences in Mayer Auditorium as he told tales of how local culture can shape — or sabotage — efforts to improve education and health worldwide.
He described how a leader in northwest Afghanistan shunned offers to build for free a school in his region, saying simply, “I don’t want it.” Later, while hunting with a would-be benefactor, the leader shot ducks that fell into a lake. He whistled and several men jumped into the water to retrieve them. The leader mused, “Do you honestly think they’d do that if they went to school?”
“And that is what you’re up against,” said Bennett-Jones: “Local elites who are quite determined to keep their people uneducated so they can hold on to the power that they’ve got.” … Read More »
By Ryan Ball
Nancy Warner
Photo/Ryan Ball
Picking at her smoked salmon with chopsticks at the faculty center named for Hugh A. Edmondson, MD, who preceded her as chair of the Department of Pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Nancy Warner, MD, Hastings Professor of Pathology, emerita, reflects on her legacy at the school.
At the age of 90, Warner remains a formidable presence, one that has been felt on the Health Sciences Campus since she became the school’s first female department chair in 1972. In fact, she was the first woman in the United States to be named chair of a pathology department at a coeducational school of medicine. … Read More »
Robert Allen has been named chief financial officer for Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital.
By Ryan Ball
When the ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation Inc. was established in 1958 to provide financial awards to U.S. graduate and undergraduate students for innovative pursuits in science, engineering and medical research, the Soviet Union had just launched Sputnik and the United States feared it might fall behind on the technology front.
Although the Cold War space race has long since cooled, the foundation continues to foster emerging talent — including Keck School of Medicine of USC postdoctoral research fellow Rachel Service, PhD, the first recipient of a $10,000 postdoctoral fellowship awarded by ARCS and The John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation.
Service is exploring multiple areas of structural biology, and she believes that understanding the structure of and functional relationship between proteins is key to developing new therapies, studying disease processes and advancing clean energy, among other pursuits. … Read More »
Six researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC were recently selected to join the Society for Pediatric Research. Membership in the society is based on peer nomination and election, and marks the member’s standing as an internationally recognized pediatric researcher.
The newest members will be honored at the Society for Pediatric Research annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on May 3. Researchers to be recognized include: Jamie Wood, MD, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics; Robinder Khemani, MD, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics; Vincent Wang, MD, MHA, associate professor of clinical pediatrics; Yong-Mi Kim, MD, MPH, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics; Douglas Vanderbilt, MD, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics; and Toni Frederick, PhD, MSPH, associate professor of pediatrics. … Read More »
USC recently created the USC Health System Board, a new body that will provide high-level direction for the operations and strategic development of the University’s medical enterprise and joint ventures for surgical centers.
With the 2013 addition of USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, the clinical enterprise now includes three hospitals, more than 600 faculty physicians practicing through the USC Care Medical Group, five community-based ambulatory care clinics and a new medical foundation to engage community physicians in private practice. … Read More »
Members of the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association dance in colorful costumes at Harry and Celesta Pappas Quad on Jan. 30 to celebrate the beginning of the lunar new year and the Chinese Year of the Horse.
Keck School of Medicine of USC has named one of its own, Rohit Varma, MD, MPH, to become chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and director of the USC Eye Institute as well as to serve as professor of ophthalmology and preventive medicine and hold the Grace and Emery Beardsley Chair in Ophthalmology.
Rohit Varma
Varma, who is currently chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, returns to the Keck School of Medicine where he previously served as professor of ophthalmology and director of the glaucoma service, ocular epidemiology center and clinical trials unit.
An accomplished physician/scientist, Varma is recognized worldwide as a visionary leader in the epidemiology of eye diseases. Among his many significant contributions to the field, Varma has been a funded researcher for the past 20 years by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
He is the principal investigator of the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study (LALES), Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Diseases Study (MEPEDS), African-American Eye Disease Study and the Chinese-American Eye Study in addition to his studies on blindness and vision impairment for the World Health Organization. Varma’s experience with national and international organizations will aid in his additional role as associate dean for strategic planning and community network development with the Keck School of Medicine of USC to expand the eye care network. … Read More »
By Hope Hamashige
Helen Hislop
Helen Hislop, PhD, a pioneering former chair of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, a division at the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, died on Nov. 15 in North Carolina at the age of 84. Hislop spent 30 years at USC, heading the division from 1975 to 1998.
In a message to colleagues at USC, James Gordon, EdD, current chair of the division, wrote, “More than anyone, she was responsible for the growth of our research programs, the formation of our clinical programs, and the excellence of our education programs. She was a true visionary, and she is recognized as a giant in the physical therapy profession. Every physical therapist, not just those of us at USC, benefits from her legacy.” … Read More »
By Alison Trinidad
For the first time, scientists and engineers have identified a critical cancer-causing component in the virus that causes Kaposi’s sarcoma, the most common cancer among HIV-infected people. The discovery lays the foundation for developing drugs that prevent Kaposi’s sarcoma and other related cancers.
“The mechanism behind the Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) that causes healthy cells to become malignant is not well understood despite two decades of intensive studies,” said S. J. Gao, PhD, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and principal investigator of the study. “This is the first time that a viral factor has been shown to be required for KSHV-induced malignant transformation. We have identified a mechanism by which these tiny viral molecules cause the cells to become malignant.”
By Paul Karon
A public education program that trained and fielded a cadre of health mentors in California significantly boosted Latino residents’ knowledge of everything from cholesterol and diabetes to the importance of nutrition and exercise, a USC study showed.
The study, by the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI), showed that specially trained “promotoras” — community members who act as health-oriented helpers and liaisons to their neighbors and communities — were effective at communicating key health information. … Read More »
Above, the USC Trojan Marching Band plays at the event, held at the USC Galen Center.
Photo/Leslie Ridgeway
The USC Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) launched its Saturday Academy on Jan. 18, expanding to include nearly 100 sixth graders who live near the Health Sciences Campus.
The NAI is a seven-year enrichment program preparing low-income, minority students living in neighborhoods surrounding USC’s campuses for success at a college or university. The kickoff event gave students and parents a chance to meet with NAI alumni, who spoke to the students about their experiences with the program and described how it helped them succeed in higher education. … Read More »
U.S. News & World Report ranks many of our excellent clinical departments among the top programs in the country. These rankings are an important marker that communicates the high quality of our patient care and medical research to the public.
Each program’s reputation among physicians is a vital component of scoring. In previous years, U.S. News sent its survey to a small group of board-certified specialists across the country. This year, U.S. News has announced it will expand the survey to reach 50,000 board-certified physicians using an online voting process through Doximity, a new online physician network. … Read More »
By Leslie Ridgeway
Shaul G. Massry (left) presents Keck School of Medicine Dean Carmen A. Puliafito with a check to support the Fifth-Year Research Scholars program.
Photo/Amy Hamaker
With a goal of helping young researchers launch their careers, the Meira and Shaul G. Massry Foundation has provided a $175,000 gift to the Keck School of Medicine of USC Dean’s Fifth-Year Research Scholars program.
With this gift, seven fourth-year medical students have the opportunity to focus on research projects for a year after graduation from medical school.
Fifth-year scholars receive a stipend of $25,000 each to continue their research. The $175,000 gift is $75,000 more than last year’s gift, giving three more students an opportunity for support.
“I believe that a student who has finished four years of medical school and is ready to postpone his or her career is motivated to be a scientist, and that’s critical,” said Shaul Massry, MD, professor emeritus of medicine, physiology and biophysics at the Keck School and president of the Massry Foundation. … Read More »
Paul Macklin, assistant professor of research, will speak at the American Association for the Advancement of Science ann
ual meeting, to be held Feb. 13-17 in Chicago. As part of a discussion on “big data” — data sets so large and complex that they become difficult to process using traditional applications — Macklin will present his talk, “Integrating Next-Generation Computational Models of Cancer Progression and Outcome.”
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