By Robert Perkins
Four scientists from the Keck School of Medicine of USC have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), selected for the honor by their academic peers.
AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science, began the tradition of selecting fellows in 1874. The nonprofit organization has been around since 1848. … Read More »
Art is supporting science thanks to DreamWorks Animation. Once per month for the next year, DreamWorks artists are donating original works for auction on eBay in support of Call to Cure, an organization supporting colorectal cancer research at USC. … Read More »
By Leslie Ridgeway
Using three-dimensional organ creation, Keck Medicine of USC researchers aim to discover clues to metastatic cancer growth by developing a first-ever integrated bioengineered/computational model of metastatic colon cancer.
David B. Agus, MD, director of the USC Center for Applied Molecular Medicine and professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, is the principal investigator of a $2.3 million, four-year “Provocative Questions” grant awarded recently by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The project title is “An Integrative Computational and Bioengineered Tissue Model of Metastasis.” … Read More »
By Sara Reeve
For Mikel Snow, PhD, it’s an honor just to be nominated. The chair of the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Department of Cell & Neurobiology has received the 2013 Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
“I feel incredibly honored, even humbled by the magnitude of this award,” said Snow. “To be honest, I was deeply touched by the gesture of last year’s USC AOA [chapter] students who told me they would be nominating me. I do not think of myself in terms of anyone special, but rather someone who was fortunate to stumble into a teaching career that I happened to enjoy very much.” … Read More »
By Amy E. Hamaker
Patricia Domay is a busy woman. At 72 years old, she caters for commercial video shoots, work she’s done for nearly 30 years. She grows her own organic vegetables, bakes an amazing coffee cake and charms those around her with her sunny personality.
In fact, the only thing that slows her down is her hip: The cartilage in Domay’s left hip joint has been worn away completely for nearly eight months, and the pain has taken its toll “My work is really strenuous,” she said. “Events are 10- to 12-hour days, plus an additional two days of prep work — all on my feet. I’ve always been very athletic — I’ve raced motorcycles, competed in tournament racquetball and hiked. It’s all hard on your body, but you don’t think about it when you’re young.” … Read More »
By Amy E. Hamaker
Have you ever felt driven to eat something sweet, even when you didn’t want to? The reason for this drive may be the high levels of sugar, fat and salt in food, which produce a dopamine hit that alters brain chemistry, according to David Kessler, MD, professor of pediatrics and epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine.
Kessler’s comments came during his lecture on Nov. 12 as part of the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series, held in Mayer Auditorium. His focus was from his book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. … Read More »
Zlokovic named holder of newly endowed chair; brings total Zilkha giving to $30M
By Alison Trinidad
Los Angeles residents Selim Zilkha and Mary Hayley are raising the stakes in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, the only cause of death among the top 10 in the United States that cannot currently be prevented, cured or slowed.
Zilkha, a member of the Keck School of Medicine of USC Board of Overseers, has pledged a gift of $5 million to the school to fund a new endowed chair in Alzheimer’s disease research. This latest gift brings Zilkha’s total giving to neuroscience research at the Keck School to more than $30 million. … Read More »
By Ryan Ball
Next time you’re sitting in freeway gridlock, consider the complex system of traffic moving through each and every one of your cells — proteins and other molecules all trying get to the right place at the right time to perform a specific function, such as contacting muscles so you can lay on the horn when the distracted driver in front of you doesn’t move.
Uncovering the mechanisms through which that intracellular traffic works earned researchers Michael P. Sheetz, PhD, of Columbia University, James A. Spudich, PhD, of Stanford University and Ronald D. Vale, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco, the 2013 Massry Prize. … Read More »
By Leslie Ridgeway
Mark Humayun with the Argus II artificial retina implant.
(Photo/Jon Nalick)
Mark Humayun, MD, PhD, internationally known for his work on the Argus II artificial retina implant intended to restore sight to the blind, has been named the inaugural director of the USC Eye Institute and interim chair of the USC Department of Ophthalmology.
In his new role, Humayun will take the reins in overseeing advanced surgical techniques and comprehensive care for patients. He will also continue to lead and guide cutting edge transformative research. … Read More »
By Sara Reeve
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has awarded a five-year, $4 million grant to a USC research team to discover whether stress in the lives of working mothers influences risk of childhood obesity in their children.
The project, “Maternal Stress and Children’s Obesity Risk,” led by Genevieve Dunton, PhD, MPH, will monitor stress levels in mothers through a smartphone app, as well as through salivary cortisol. … Read More »
Third-year Keck School of Medicine of USC medical student Martin Tolosa examines a patient at the four-day Care Harbor clinic held Oct. 31 to Nov. 3 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
(Photo/Jon Nalick)
The annual Care Harbor event provides free medical and dental care to hundreds of people who have limited or no access to health care.
(Photo/Jon Nalick)
By Christine Chan and Amy E. Hamaker
Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and more than five million Americans live with the disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Conquering Alzheimer’s was the focus of the first Zilkha Mini Symposium on Alzheimer’s Research at USC.
The symposium, held on Aug. 26 in honor of a visit by the Alzheimer’s Association’s Maria Carrillo, PhD, and Susan Galeas, MSW, MPH, covered a variety of topics, including brain imaging and mapping, genomics, the blood-brain barrier, new therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease and an overview of clinical research at USC. … Read More »
By Larissa Puro
In this screen capture from the short film Tamale Lesson, the fictional Romeo family discusses cervical cancer screening while making tamales for a Quinceanera.
The USC faculty-produced short film Tamale Lesson, which uses narrative storytelling to educate women about cervical cancer screening, received the 2013 APHA Public Health Education & Health Promotion Award for best multimedia material from the American Public Health Association at its annual meeting Nov. 2-6 in Boston.
Cervical cancer is largely preventable and treatable. However, some populations — Latina and Korean women, especially — are not adequately screened, which leads to disproportionately high rates of the disease among them. … Read More »
By Alison Trinidad
An experimental drug called 3K3A-APC appears to reduce brain damage, eliminate brain hemorrhaging and improve motor skills in older stroke-afflicted mice and stroke-afflicted rats with comorbid conditions such as hypertension, according to a new study from Keck Medicine of USC.
The study, which appears online in the journal Stroke, provides additional evidence that 3K3A-APC may be used as a therapy for stroke in humans, either alone or in combination with the FDA-approved clot-busting drug therapy tPA (tissue plasminogen activator). Clinical trials to test the drug’s efficacy in people experiencing acute ischemic stroke are expected to begin recruiting patients in the United States in 2014. … Read More »
(Photo/Cristy Lytal)
The dessert tray and cheese platter seemed self-renewing at the first USC Stem Cell Social, held on Oct. 25 at the Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC. Nearly 100 guests toured the labs, viewed research posters, voted on their favorite scientific images and mingled with researchers and faculty at this public event hosted by USC Stem Cell and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) in honor of Stem Cell Awareness Day. … Read More »
By Robert Perkins
Sometimes the smallest tools are required to tackle the biggest problems. At the forefront of innovative research on regenerative medicine and cancer treatment, experts from the top research institutions in the greater Los Angeles area converged for the first-ever UCLA-USC-Caltech Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine Symposium on Oct. 18. … Read More »
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