Keck Medicine of USC researchers to study air pollution/obesity connection

By Leslie Ridgeway

Could air pollution make you fat? Keck Medicine of USC researchers received funding to investigate the hypothesis that children who live near busy roadways may be exposed to air pollution that causes inflammation, leading to obesity and other health problems.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have granted $7.8 million to Keck Medicine’s Southern California Children’s Environmental Health Center (SC-CEHC) over the next five years. Three teams of scientists will mine data from previous research and conduct new studies on near-roadway air pollution’s role in the development of obesity and metabolic abnormalities that may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. … Read More »

November 5th, 2013|Announcements|

Friends’ Facebook, MySpace photos affect risky behavior among teens

By Alison Trinidad

Teenagers who see friends smoking and drinking alcohol in photographs posted on Facebook and MySpace are more likely to smoke and drink themselves, according to a new study.

“Our study shows that adolescents can be influenced by their friends’ online pictures to smoke or drink alcohol,” said Thomas W. Valente, PhD, professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the study’s principal investigator. “To our knowledge, this is the first study to apply social network analysis methods to examine how teenagers’ activities on online social networking sites influence their smoking and alcohol use.” … Read More »

October 18th, 2013|Announcements|

USC team given new grant to study genetic makeup underlying disease risks in minority populations

By Leslie Ridgeway

A research team co-led by USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists is one of five teams to be awarded four-year grants totaling nearly $14 million to study the genomics of disease susceptibility in ethnically diverse populations. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded the grant funds.

A team led by co-principal investigators Christopher Haiman, PhD, professor of preventive medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC, and Loic Le Marchand, MD, PhD of the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, is scheduled to be awarded $3.1 million to examine the DNA from samples collected from the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC). … Read More »

October 18th, 2013|Announcements|

Keck School outreach group receives $180,000 to mitigate port expansion health impacts

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach generate a huge volume of revenue and high levels of diesel pollution as they move vast amounts of cargo. But this comes at a

Andrea M. Hricko, professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, who directs the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center community outreach and engagement program, received a grant from The Kresge Foundation to research how port expansion affects local health. (Photo/Phil Channing) Andrea M. Hricko, professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, who directs the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center community outreach and engagement program, received a grant from The Kresge Foundation to research how port expansion affects local health.
(Photo/Phil Channing)

cost to the environment — and to the health of nearby residents of low-income communities.

Andrea Hricko, MPH, professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, works with a team of USC and UCLA scientists at the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center, directed by Frank Gilliland, MS, MD, MPH, PhD, professor of preventive medicine. The center is dedicated to studying the health effects of air pollution.

The Kresge Foundation recently awarded a $180,000 grant to the center’s community outreach and engagement program, directed by Hricko, for a two-year project entitled, “Translating the Health Impacts of Ports and Goods Movements.” … Read More »

October 17th, 2013|Announcements|

USC researchers to study genetic risk and molecular development of ovarian cancer

By Sara Reeve

Researchers at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center have been awarded nearly $4 million for two ovarian cancer research project grants from the National Institutes of Health. Both projects utilize the multicenter Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (OCAC) to perform a large population-based analysis of ovarian cancer patients and their tissues. … Read More »

October 17th, 2013|Announcements|