USC Stem Cell

09/04/2026

USC Stem Cell was well represented at the CIRM Trainee Networking Conference in Sacramento! Both our EDUC4 (PhD) trainees and COMPASS (undergraduate) scholars presented posters showcasing their research, and huge congrats to Negar Hosseini and Gabriella Rita Panglinan, who were selected to give talks!

Proud to see our COMPASS scholars shine: Jasmin Cantu-Perez, Querondra Dilworth, Musa Bittaye, Lilah Phillips, Salma Setia, Joshua Wong, Charli Liu, Evan Dittus, and Tracy Wang.

Launched in 2023, the USC COMPASS Program (Creating Opportunities through Mentorship and Partnership Across Stem Cell Science) is a multidisciplinary collaboration between the Keck School of Medicine of USC, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, and USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), COMPASS prepares undergraduates for careers in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine through an intensive two-year program spanning their junior and senior years.

08/14/2026

Congratulations to Stephanie Zazueta, 2026 Incoming KSOM Dean's Master's Scholar, and Gayatri Raut, recipient of the Dr. Rodolfo Montes Scholarship! These awards support outstanding students in research-focused master's programs. Congrats to both!

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08/11/2026

Huge congrats to Chuck Murry, MD, PhD,head of the USC Stem Cell Center at Keck School of Medicine of USC, and his team! This work on heart muscle regeneration could change the future of cardiac care.

08/04/2026

POV: You're inside a kidney.

What starts as an organ you can see with the naked eye ends in a microscopic world of specialized structures working together to keep you alive.

💜 Glomerulus – filters blood and creates the initial filtrate
💚 Proximal Tubule – reabsorbs water, nutrients, and other essentials
❤️ Distal Tubule & Collecting Duct – fine-tune the final composition of urine

Every day, your kidneys continuously filter, recover, and refine what your body needs to maintain balance.

Watch until the end to see the kidney's filtration system at the microscopic level.

📸 Image courtesy of Zhongwei Li, at USC Stem Cell, whose work focuses on bridging basic studies of kidney organogenesis and translational applications of stem/progenitor cell-based kidney regeneration and disease modeling, with the long-term goal of rebuilding the kidney.

07/30/2026

A groundbreaking collaboration between the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the Keck School of Medicine of USC is shedding new light on one of cancer immunotherapy’s greatest challenges: the physical softness of tumors.

Published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the research reveals how soft tumor environments help cancer cells evade detection and resist treatment. The team developed an innovative genetic tool that can identify and target these elusive cells, including cancer stem-like cells that drive tumor growth, drug resistance, and recurrence.

Led by first author Jenny Yunjia Qu, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Peter Yingxiao Wang, the study represents a significant step toward more effective cancer immunotherapies and improved outcomes for patients.

Read more:

USC researchers have developed a new "black box" tool to measure the softness of tumor cells, an insight that could be crucial for more effective cancer treatment.

07/08/2026

Could the gut microbiome play a role in fertility?

New research from the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, led by primary author Bérénice Benayoun, PhD, a principal investigator with USC Stem Cell, found that changes to the gut microbiome improved ovarian function in mice, opening new avenues for understanding the connection between gut microbes, fertility, and reproductive aging.

While the findings are early, they highlight the potential for future research into how the gut microbiome could shape reproductive health and healthy aging.

Read more:

Understanding how the microbiome and reproductive system interact could lead to better treatment options for fertility and overall health as women age.

07/02/2026

What Is USC COMPASS?

• 2-year intensive program focused on stem cell biology and regenerative medicine
• Hands-on research with personalized mentoring
• Patient engagement and outreach opportunities
• Substantial financial stipend and tuition support
• Open to students in ALL majors

Application deadline is January 27, 2025, apply now at https://compass.usc.edu/apply/

07/02/2026

USC researchers just got one step closer to growing kidney tissue that behaves like the real thing. In a study published in the journal Science, a team from the Keck School of Medicine of USC discovered a previously unrecognized axis that helps organize how a kidney forms, then built synthetic organizer cells to recreate that signal inside lab grown kidney organoids.
Led by Nils Lindström, PhD and Leonardo Morsut, PhD, the work makes these lab grown models more reliable for studying kidney disease and testing potential therapies, while supporting long term efforts to one day grow transplantable kidney tissue.
It is discoveries like this, made possible by collaboration across USC Stem Cell and USC Viterbi School of Engineering, that keep pushing medicine forward.
Read more about the study https://stemcell.keck.usc.edu/synthetic-organizer-cells-to-improve-kidney-organoids/

06/19/2026

USC Stem Cell scientists and Stanford collaborators have developed a renewable source of immune cells that could help advance cancer immunotherapies and treatments for other diseases.

In this study published in Cell, Qi-Long Ying, PhD, professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and Stanford collaborators developed a way to grow and genetically engineer the progenitor cells that give rise to macrophages, immune cells with promising potential for treating solid tumors, blood cancers and other diseases.

The researchers also engineered these cells to recognize cancer and stimulate broader anti-tumor immune responses, bringing scientists one step closer to more effective immunotherapies.

Collaborators in the lab of Ravi Majeti, MD, PhD, director of Stanford's Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, were also able to independently reproduce and maintain these genetically-engineered progenitor cells – further validation of the potential for this crucial work.

Learn more about this incredible study here: https://stemcell.keck.usc.edu/renewable-cell-source-for-cancer-immunotherapy-and-beyond/.

06/16/2026

Calling all PhD students in developmental biology, stem cell biology, and regenerative medicine! Applications are now open for the 2026 NIH T32 PhD Fellowships in Developmental Biology, Stem Cells, and Regeneration. Eligible students are encouraged to apply by July 3 for this competitive training opportunity.

Find eligibility requirements and application instructions at the link below.

All PhD students who are conducting research related to developmental biology, stem cell biology, and/or regenerative medicine are encouraged to apply for a training fellowship. We have two slots available for a US Citizen and one slot available for international or US citizen student. Funding will....