News from 2017

‘An unprecedented year of new buildings’ at USC

USC News looks back on the year in construction at USC, highlighting the USC Village and Michelson Hall, home of the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, as two projects that “will leave lasting impacts on future generations of Trojans and scientific research.” (December 26, 2017)

How a tumor grows can predict response to cancer therapy

USC Viterbi News writes about a new study out of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering that finds tumor growth properties can influence response to cancer drugs. “Identifying a measurement or quantity that predicts how specific tumors will respond, called a predictive biomarker, is extremely valuable to cancer research,” said Stacey Finley, a USC assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering, co-author to the study, the Gordon S. Marshall Early Career Chair, and a faculty member at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience. (December 21, 2017)

Michelson Center researchers advance work on nonaddictive opioid painkiller

USC News writes: “What if scientists could develop an opioid-based painkiller that is not addictive and has limited side effects? That is possible based on new findings by an international team of scientists that included contributions from top researchers at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience … The findings were published Jan. 4 in the journal Cell. They are an example of how USC Michelson Center scientists collaborate with a range of experts in multiple disciplines to conduct groundbreaking research.” (January 4, 2018)

Peter Kuhn and John Carpten discuss the connection between diversity and cancer research

On Facebook Live, USC researchers Peter Kuhn, of the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, and John Carpten, of Keck Medicine of USC’s Institute of Translational Genomics, discuss the connection between diversity and cancer research to enable personalized cancer treatment.

Viterbi Researchers Design Thermal ‘Skin’ to Maintain Temperature of Satellites

USC Viterbi writes that a team of USC researchers that developed a new material to self-regulate the temperature of a satellite, working in conjunction with a team at Northrop Grumman, will benefit from “the new capabilities in the recently-dedicated John D. O’Brien Nanofabrication Laboratory in the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience.”

Nanomedicine, Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials Research with Dr. Eun-Ji Chung (podcast)

The Viterbi Voices podcast featured Dr. Eun-Ji Chung, and talked to her about her research lab, which is involved in everything from “stem cell work, to nanomedicine, to highly specialized drug delivery techniques.”

Curing Cancer, Making Internet Faster, and Synthesizing Nanomaterials with Dr. Andrea Armani (podcast)

The Viterbi Voices podcast featured Dr. Andrea Armani, and talked to her about her path to becoming a chemical engineering professor at USC, her interdisciplinary lab, and the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience. Dr. Armani’s lab will be moving to Michelson in December, and she will serve there as director of the cleanroom.

Calling on students to develop fresh approaches to total patient care

The USC Iovine and Young Academy announced a grant from the Phase ONE Foundation that will initiate a full-scale, four-year undergraduate track focused on health innovation to help patients achieve better outcomes, anticipated to launch in fall 2019. Since last year, students have been working with USC’s Convergent Science Initiative in Cancer led by Peter Kuhn, a faculty member at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience and dean’s professor at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, to “hack cancer,” as Kuhn puts it. (November 30, 2017)

Nanofab Lab Dedicated to Former USC Viterbi Executive Vice Dean John O’Brien

On November 9, 2017, family, friends, faculty, and staff gathered to celebrate the naming of the John D. O’Brien Nanofabrication Lab dedicated to the beloved, former Executive Vice Dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, who passed away unexpectedly last March. (November 13, 2017)

Forbes: “USC Sees The Future With New Course Offering”

Forbes writes that “It’s hard to over-stress how big a breakthrough this USC IP course is. Until recently, intellectual property had been taught only in law schools or the occasional business school seminar.” The outlet notes that for Dr. Gary Michelson, the course “helps fulfil a promise he made to his crippled grandmother half a century ago to find cures for disease.” (November 9, 2017)

Let It Glow: Cristina Zavaleta aims to better detect and treat cancer

Dr. Cristina Zavaleta brings to the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience her expertise in nano-based molecular imaging, a tool that can be exploited in early cancer detection and tumor resection, or surgical removal. (October 31, 2017)

Peter Kuhn and Valery Fokin: Culture of collaboration

USC Dornsife researchers Peter Kuhn and Valery Fokin say culture will play a prominent role in shaping the new USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience. Fokin and Kuhn are convinced that personal connections, fostered by a healthy, supportive culture that breaks down academic silos, encourages collaboration and allows for failure will be as important as the bricks and mortar. (November 1, 2017)

Power professionals make a case for intellectual property

As college graduates enter an increasingly competitive and global knowledge-based economy, intellectual property — driving more than $6 trillion in annual output and responsible for more than 80 percent of the market value of publicly traded companies, has become a critical area for future entrepreneurs and business leaders. It is an important topic for USC President C. L. Max Nikias, the holder of eight patents himself, and Gary K. Michelson, an inventor, philanthropist and retired orthopedic surgeon whose 2014 gift to USC named the Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience.

Building Design+Construction (BD+C) Spotlights Michelson Hall

The trade outlet highlights that Michelson Hall is “designed, engineered, and constructed with an eye toward space flexibility and the accommodation of whatever equipment might need to be installed in the future, according to Alton Parks, the senior project manager. The hope, too, is that the design provokes interdisciplinary interaction.” (October 12, 2017)

Symphony of Sight: An Animation

USC Bridge Institute scientists and School of Cinematic Arts creatives came together to produce an inspired animation about scientific exploration through Hyper Spectral Phasor technology, an imaging technique developed by USC postdoctoral fellow Francesco Cutrale and USC Professor Scott Fraser.

USC’s Michelson Hall, new center for convergent bioscience, makes its debut

Michelson Hall debuted November 1 at USC’s University Park Campus. It will be the home of the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, bringing great minds from disciplines all over the campus — from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the Keck School of Medicine of USC — under one roof to solve the world’s most pressing health problems. The building is the result of a $50 million gift from retired orthopedic spinal surgeon Gary K. Michelson and his wife, Alya Michelson. (USC News, November 1)

Science and cinema form an alliance to find new paths in biology research

To encourage collaboration and hasten scientific advances, Raymond Stevens, director of the Bridge Institute at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, invited experts from a variety of fields — chemists, engineers, physicists and neurobiologists, among others — to a retreat on Santa Catalina Island. There, he challenged them to work together and propose projects bridging different fields and addressing intractable problems in bioscience. One proposal in particular stood out.

USC’s Michelson Hall, a hub for biotech research, ready to open — and change the world

The most complex building ever built on the University Park Campus brings together top engineers and scientists in shared spaces designed to encourage collaborative research. On November 1, USC will open Michelson Hall, the new hub for this groundbreaking research endeavor as a cornerstone for biotech in Los Angeles. The grand opening of the $185 million building caps nearly seven years of planning and design, including three years of construction. All that had once existed only in blueprints is now a reality, thanks to a generous $50 million gift from retired orthopedic spinal surgeon Gary K. Michelson and his wife, Alya Michelson.

The World’s Smallest Movie Studio

Scott Fraser, Provost Professor of Biological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering and Director of Science Initiatives, works with his team to “eavesdrop” on memories as they’re being made.

Can AI Help to Detect and Cure Cancer?

Fei Sha believes in the power of convergence. That’s why the associate professor in computer science and Zohrab A. Kaprielian Fellow in Engineering feels so excited about the opening of the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, which is funded by a $50 million gift from Dr. Gary Michelson and his wife, Alya. There, Sha will head the Center of Data, Algorithms, and Systems for Health, or DASH, which will apply cutting-edge findings of statistical machine learning to medical science.

Building a better “CAR”

A trio of USC Viterbi researchers have unlocked secrets about an engineered protein receptor, known as CAR, that makes cancer-fighting T cells more effective.

The power of fear drove cancer researcher Peter Kuhn toward his vocation

After seeing how his mother dealt with the disease, the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience researcher tackles the toughest questions about cancer

Better drug t o save mothers’ lives during childbirth may be on the way

Scientists at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience and Stanford University take first step toward a safer drug for reducing postpartum bleeding

Cancer has a biological clock and this drug may keep it from ticking

Scientists at USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience and Japan’s Nagoya University find and test a promising drug that stops cancer by interfering with the cancer cells’ metabolism and other circadian-related functions.

Trade secrets need love, too: USC Marshall offers entrepreneur’s guide to intellectual property

USC will offer a new course this Fall, titled: “The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Intellectual Property” through USC Marshall’s Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. The course will provide essential foundation elements in the entrepreneurship and will address the “IP education gap.” A proponent of intellectual property education, innovator, and philanthropist Gary Michelson was pivotal in the Grief Center’s creation of the class. In 2014, Dr. Michelson and his wife, Alya Michelson donated $50 million to fund the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience.

Scientists want to synthesize Salvia’s hallucinogenic molecule to lower opiate abuse

Gizmodo highlighted research by Raymond Stevens, Saheem Zaidi and Vsevolod Katritch of the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience on their attempts to stabilize the structure of salvia, a hallucinogenic plant. By altering the molecule’s structure during synthesis, the researchers believe they are able to customize its opiate-like effects with a reduced risk for abuse.