Located at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, a lab run by Min Yu, MD, PhD, of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC, is embedded in a vibrant community of stem cell and cancer scientists with whom she regularly collaborates. In one key study, she was able to use patient blood samples to filter out rare tumor cells, grow and expand them in the lab, then study how they contribute to metastasis — the leading cause of cancer-related death.

Yu runs her lab with a focus on democratic collaboration among her researchers, resulting in a series of grant-funded studies that have shown highly promising results with timely clinical applications.

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