USC Stem Cell

06/03/2026

USC Stem Cell and SPARK at USC are launching the Innovation Catalyst Grant in Regenerative Medicine, a new funding opportunity designed to accelerate promising therapeutics and diagnostics from the lab to the clinic. The program supports regenerative medicine innovations and strongly encourages the integration of AI technologies.

Awardees will receive up to $50,000 in milestone-based funding, project management support, educational programming, mentorship from regenerative medicine and commercialization experts, and access to industry advisors, venture capital networks, and other strategic partners. Participants will also gain valuable guidance on company formation, clinical approval pathways, and pursuing future funding opportunities, including SBIR grants.

Applications are open to researchers seeking to translate groundbreaking discoveries into real-world patient impact. Applications are due June 30, 2026.

Learn more and apply:https://stemcell.keck.usc.edu/2026-usc-stem-cell-spark-at-usc-innovation-catalyst-grant-in-regenerative-medicine/.

The USC Stem Cell/SPARK at USC grant is focused on the support of regenerative medicine innovation (therapeutics or diagnostics). Integration of AI technology is highly encouraged.The new SPARK at USC program is part of the SPARK Global program with the goal of accelerating the translation of academ...

05/29/2026

Congratulations to Keyue Shen, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at USC Viterbi School of Engineering, USC Stem Cell-affiliated faculty member, and member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at Keck Medicine of USC, on being elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows, one of the highest honors in the field. Shen was recognized for developing innovative tools that enable researchers to measure how living cells signal and interact in real time, advancing disease research and potential treatments.

Read the full article here:

USC biomedical engineer Keyue Shen has been elected to the AIMBE College of Fellows for developing tools that measure how living cells signal and interact in real time - without destroying them.

05/27/2026

Last week, NIH T32 & CIRM-funded trainees, led by Fifi Pan and Sara Lydon, proudly hosted our annual student-led Stem Cell Symposium: Directing Stem Cell Science Toward Clinical Solutions.

We brought together experts leading the translational frontier to our USC campus, spanning cartilage reprogramming, cardiac fibrosis, retinal regeneration, and bone repair:

🔬 Dr. Nidhi Bhutani (Stanford): Rethinking how we approach cartilage regeneration through cellular reprogramming

🔬 Dr. Jennifer Davis (Univ. of Washington): Unlocking the role of cardiac fibroblasts in heart remodeling & recovery

🔬 Dr. Rachelle Crosbie (UCLA): Connecting muscle cell biology and the ECM to restore regeneration

🔬 Dr. Thomas Reh (Univ. of Washington): In vivo reprogramming for retinal disease treatment

🔬 Dr. Katie Hixon (Dartmouth): Targeting senescence to unlock stem cell-mediated bone repair

Beyond the keynotes, trainee speakers Eric Paulissen, Connor Fausto, and Alma Munoz presented their work alongside 10+ trainee posters. Connor also organized a stunning imaging competition showcasing awe-inspiring images from 8 labs across our community. This is what the future of regenerative medicine looks like.

None of this would have been possible without our all-student organizing team, our faculty advisors Chuck Murry, Gage Crump, and Francesca Mariani, and our generous sponsors: QIAGEN and Parse Biosciences (Gold Tier) and RWD, Thermo Fisher, and MedChemExpress (Silver Tier).

Thank you to everyone who came, engaged, and helped bring this to life. We are so excited to see our stem cell community grow and inspire each other toward clinical impact. 🙌

Arshia Uttam, Cami Acosta, Conner Fausto, Drain Gamble, Emilie Chen, Gabriel Elizalde, Hsuan Chen, Jean-Paul Urenda, Lola Takhirov, Marcella Birtele, Megan Schreiber, Negar Hosseini, Pedro Medina, Wynnie Ngyuen, Zachary Fouladian

05/21/2026

What began as an unexpected lab result could lead to a new approach for treating kidney disease.

While engineering nanoparticles to deliver medicine to the heart, USC researcher and USC Stem Cell affiliate PI Eunji Chung, PhD, and her team discovered the particles were instead traveling directly to the kidneys with remarkable precision. Rather than dismissing the finding, Chung’s lab followed the science.

That discovery became the foundation for Silver Spur Therapeutics, the startup Chung founded in 2024 to develop targeted nanoparticle therapies for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), a genetic condition that can lead to kidney failure.

“For a moment, we thought we had failed,” Chung said. “But then we realized the particles were doing something very specific.”

Read the full article here:

USC researcher Eunji Chung spent over a decade learning to steer nanoparticles through the body. Now she's using that knowledge to take on one of the most common inherited kidney disorders.

05/21/2026

The future of regenerative medicine was on display at the USC CIRM COMPASS Scholars Program year-end symposium!

Designed to prepare undergraduate students for careers in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, the USC CIRM COMPASS program provides hands-on research experience, mentorship, and scientific training for the next generation of innovators in stem cell science.

On May 4, 2026, 20 USC juniors and seniors presented their research at the Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC, showcasing the impactful work being done across USC labs. Launched in 2023 with $2.9 million in funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the program continues to create opportunities through mentorship, collaboration, and discovery.

A special thank you to the USC researchers and mentors whose guidance helps shape the regenerative medicine workforce of the future.

Full article in the comments.

📷 Photo by Amor Mathershed

05/19/2026

Every sound you’ve ever heard passed through these tiny, beautifully organized structures. 🎶 Welcome back to Macro to Micro, because the most incredible science is the kind you can’t see with the naked eye.

What you’re seeing here is a fluorescent microscopic image of the inner ear. 💚 The green cells are auditory hair cells, the sensory receptors responsible for detecting sound. 🔴 The red cells surrounding them are supporting cells, which help hair cells do their job. Together, they form neat rows that run the entire length of the cochlea, making up the auditory sensory organ known as the organ of Corti.

📸 Image courtesy of Ksenia Gnedeva, PhD, whose laboratory interrogates how molecular signaling and tissue mechanics control embryonic sensory organ growth and how the developmental programs of self-renewal and differentiation can be re-initiated in the mammalian inner ear after damage.

05/18/2026

A team led by USC Stem Cell scientist Zhongwei Li, PhD, has produced some of the most complex and mature lab-grown kidney models to date. Supported by a three-year grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), Li and his colleagues are now mapping the characteristics, structure and function of these mini-kidney structures, known as human synthetic kidney organoids (hSKOs), to show how they can advance research on disease.

Go to the comments for the link to the full story about this incredible work.

05/15/2026

Where science meets creativity 🎨🔬

The Artist and Researcher exhibit series celebrates the connection between artistic exploration and scientific innovation, showing how both disciplines are driven by curiosity, discovery, and new ways of seeing the world.

Through the HEAL Program at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, curated by KSOM Artist-in-Residence Ted Meyer, artists are paired with researchers for conversations and hands-on lab experiences that inspire original works of art rooted in scientific research.

We’re proud to see USC Stem Cell members featured in this unique collaboration, helping bring cutting-edge science to life in ways that are visual, human, and accessible to the broader community.

🔬Researcher: Leonardo Morsut, PhD 🎨 Artists: Eileen Mou
🔬Researcher: Una Stevic 🎨 Artist: Nishka Manghnani
🔬Researcher: Gabriella Rita Pangilinan (Yulia Schwartz Lab), 🎨 Artist: April Kwon
🔬Researcher: Lola Takhirov 🎨 Artist: Riddhi T. Patel
🔬Researcher: Arshia Uttam, 🎨 Artist: Krista Ng
🔬Researcher: Catcher Salazar, 🎨 Artist: Siena Seps
🔬Researcher: Saw Htun, 🎨 Artist: Justin Kim
🔬Researcher: Connor Fausto, 🎨 Artist: Sarah Kwang

05/14/2026

Follow USC Stem Cell Research

What if we could deliver medicine directly to the exact cells causing hearing loss? We might have just found a way.

Welcome to Research Simplified, where we break down complex science so everyone can understand it. Today, Dr. Ksenia Gnedeva, a USC stem cell researcher and Associate Professor for the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery and the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, breaks down a potential game-changer for hearing loss.

Think of your inner ear like a piano. The hair cells are the keys, but the helper cells around them are the frame and strings that keep everything working. For many people with hereditary hearing loss, it’s those helper cells that are broken, and fixing them has been nearly impossible. Until now.

Our team discovered a tiny delivery truck, called ShH10, that travels into the ear and delivers medicine directly to those helper cells. And it stays exactly where it needs to, no wandering to the brain or the other ear.

We think this could change how we treat hearing loss. And we’re just getting started.

05/12/2026

My name is Ksnenia Gnedeva, PhD, and as a stem cell researcher, these three facts about stem cells still blow my mind. 🤯

1. They start as a blank slate. Stem cells are the body’s raw material, they have no assigned job yet. They’re the only cells in the body with the ability to develop into many different cell types, from brain cells to heart muscle to skin.

2. They can copy themselves indefinitely. Unlike most cells that divide a set number of times and die, stem cells can replicate over and over, producing either more stem cells or specialized cells the body needs.

3. They already exist inside you. You don’t have to look far, stem cells live in your bone marrow, blood, and organs right now, quietly repairing and replenishing your body every single day.

Stem cells are essentially the body’s own repair kit, and we’re still uncovering just how powerful they are.

Here’s why this matters to me personally: my research focuses on how molecular signals and tissue mechanics guide the growth of sensory organs in early development, and whether those same biological programs can be switched back on after damage. Specifically, we study the inner ear, where the loss of specialized hair cells leads to permanent hearing and balance loss in mammals.

Unlike fish and birds, the human inner ear cannot regenerate these cells on its own. But by understanding what turns regeneration off, and what it would take to turn it back on, we may one day be able to restore hearing and balance for millions of people.

Stem cells aren’t just fascinating. For those living with hearing loss, they could be life-changing.