As people age or become ill, their immune systems can become exhausted and less capable of fighting off viruses such as the flu or COVID-19. In a new mouse study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in Science Advances, researchers from the USC Stem Cell lab of Rong Lu Read More…
Category: News
Why does a leukemic mutation not always lead to leukemia? A new clue from a mouse study at USC
Why do some people with a genetic mutation associated with leukemia remain healthy, while others with the same mutation develop the blood cancer? In a new study published in Blood, scientists from the USC Stem Cell laboratory of Rong Lu discovered a mechanism that linked a leukemic mutation to varying potentials for disease development—a discovery Read More…
Why multipotent progenitor cells matter for patients receiving bone marrow transplants
When patients receive bone marrow transplants, they are infused with complex admixtures of many different cell types with the power to regenerate their blood and immune systems. In a new study in Experimental & Molecular Medicine, scientists from the USC Stem Cell laboratory of Rong Lu share new discoveries about the influence of multipotent progenitor Read More…
Wade Boohar receives Provost’s Research Fellowship
Congratulations to Wade Boohar on receiving the Provost’s Research Fellowship!
Sara-Jane Onyeama receives CIRM Training Grant Fellowship
Congratulations to Sara-Jane Onyeama on receiving the CIRM Training Grant Fellowship!
Rong Lu featured on USC podcast “Lessons in Lifespan Health”
Professor Rong Lu was recently featured on an episode of “Lessons in Lifespan Health,” a podcast produced by the USC Davis School of Gernotology. Listen to the podcast at https://lifespanhealth.usc.edu/associate-professor-rong-lu-providing-insights-into-stem-cell-biology-in-the-context-of-aging-and-disease.
For Rong Lu, science is in her blood
When Rong Lu joined USC as an assistant professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine in 2014, she knew that earning tenure would figuratively require blood, sweat and tears. But after becoming a mother, she ended up literally supplying her children’s cord blood to her lab to study how individual stem cells work together Read More…
How alike are the cancer cells from a single patient?
Even within a single patient with cancer, there is a vast diversity of individual tumor cells, which display distinct behaviors related to growth, metastasis, and responses to chemotherapy. To carry out these behaviors, each cancer cell uses its genes to make the needed molecules in a unique way known as its “gene expression signature.” To Read More…
Rong Lu wins an NIH Emerging Investigator Award
The NHLBI Emerging Investigator Award, also known as an R35 grant, funds outstanding overall research programs, rather than individual projects. The goal of this large and long-term 7-year award is to provide a stable funding environment, thereby improving productivity and facilitating nimble, ambitious, and creative research. To read more, visit https://stemcell.keck.usc.edu/usc-stem-cell-scientist-rong-lu-wins-an-nih-emerging-investigator-award/.
Rong Lu and Caltech’s Michael Elowitz receive Broad Innovation Award
The Broad Innovation Award is bringing together Rong Lu and Caltech synthetic biologist Michael Elowitz. Their team will study the spatial organization of blood-forming stem and progenitor cells, also called hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), which reside in the bone marrow. By pinpointing the locations of specific HSPCs, the scientists may find clues to Read More…
