Children are not as hard-headed as adults—in a very literal sense. Babies are born with soft spots and flexible joints called sutures at the junctions where various sections of their skull bones meet. If these sutures fuse prematurely, the skull cannot expand to accommodate the child’s growing brain—a serious birth defect called craniosynostosis that can Read More…
Author: pfraser
D’Juan Famer named Howard Hughes Medical Institute Hanna H. Gray Fellow
A little over a year after arriving at USC, D’Juan Farmer has been awarded one of the most prestigious fellowships available to postdoctoral fellows. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program supports early-career life scientists from groups underrepresented in the life sciences. The fellows receive up to $1.4 million in funding Read More…
Audio story: What 50,000 fish teach us about regenerative medicine
A Fox code for the face
In the developing face, how do stem cells know whether to become cartilage, bones or teeth? To begin to answer this question, scientists from the USC Stem Cell laboratory of Gage Crump tested the role of a key family of genes, called “Forkhead-domain transcription factors,” or Fox. Their findings appear in the journal Development. To read more, visit stemcell.keck.usc.edu/a-fox-code-for-the-face.
Gage Crump hosts 360 video tour of USC’s stem cell research center
In this 360 video tour of USC’s stem cell research center, Dr. Gage Crump shows you the basement, which houses the zebrafish that he uses to study craniofacial birth defects, bone injuries and arthritis.
Growing hope: New organs? Not yet, but stem cell research is getting closer
If you lose a limb, it’s lost for life. If you damage a kidney, you won’t grow a new one. And if you have a heart attack, the scars are there to stay. But regenerative medicine is poised to change all of this. Building new tissue is within sight, and USC scientists are among the Read More…
Crump Lab chews on the mysteries of jaw development
Scientists in the USC Stem Cell laboratory of Gage Crump have revealed how key genes guide the development of the jaw in zebrafish. These findings may offer clues for understanding craniofacial anomalies in human patients, who sometimes carry a mutation in equivalent genes. In the study published in Developmental Cell, first author Lindsey Barske and Read More…
As the Hearst Fellow, Peter Fabian studies small fish in a big pond
During his career as a developmental biologist, Hearst Fellow Peter Fabian has studied many kinds of fish—from bichir and sturgeon, to gar and medaka. However, his favorite is the zebrafish, the current focus of his postdoctoral training in the USC Stem Cell laboratory of Gage Crump. “I like zebrafish most,” said Fabian. “It’s a very Read More…
Gage Crump earns an $8 million NIH Award for Sustaining Outstanding Achievement in Research
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recognized USC scientist Gage Crump with an Award for Sustaining Outstanding Achievement in Research—an eight-year, $8 million grant to support the development of stem cell-based treatments for patients with craniofacial diseases. “Perhaps the best part of this award is that it funds the investigator, rather than a specific project,” said Read More…
Lindsey Barske and Joanna Smeeton embark on the Pathway to Independence
USC Stem Cell scientists Lindsey Barske and Joanna Smeeton have received prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) Pathway to Independence Awards. Known as the K99/R00, the awards will help them transition from the postdoctoral to the faculty stages of their careers.
