The University of Southern California is known around the world as being a leader in many fields, including life science research, and even has a separate campus dedicated to teaching and researching health sciences. With 6 basic science departments, 18 clinical departments, 7 research institutes, and dozens of research centers and programs, the Keck School of Medicine on the USC Health Science Campus is continuing to expand and increase life science capabilities. In 2015, the university opened a new $15 million Center for Pullmonary Research as well as a new $10 million Center for Convergent Bioscience.
The ever-growing campus is adding a new department to its impressive list, with the recent establishment of a Translational Genomics Department to be located in the Harlyne J. Norris Research Tower on the USC Health Sciences campus.
The new department, which will be led by award-winning scientists John David Carpten, PhD, will continue to grow over the next 5 years as 7 - 10 new faculty members are expected to be hired, and the department may potentially offer degree programs in innovate fields of biomedical research. The department will focus on how the molecular study of genes can be used to create individual treatment methods primarily for cancer patients, although other areas may also be involved.
Dr. Carpton explained that "other potentially ripe areas include neurological diseases, pediatric cancer and rare genetic syndromes. I am also heavily committed to understanding why certain diseases and disorders are more prevalent among different underrepresented populations.”
The establishment of this new center will tremendously help not only USC, but cancer patients throughout the Los Angeles area.
Stephen Gruber, MD, PhD, MPH, director of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center explained that "the new Department of Translational Genomics is an enormous asset not only for the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, but also for the Keck health system. Hiring John Carpten and creating this new department will have a ripple effect across all of our USC campuses. This will help children with rare diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and cancer patients with previously untreatable diseases at USC Norris. It will transform our thinking through the application of new methods formulated in collaboration with our engineering, computational biology and chemistry colleagues at the University Park Campus.”
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In the 2015 fiscal year, the USC received more than $197.2 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) alone. Departments at the University benefiting from substantial amounts of this funding include:
- Public Health and Preventative Medicine - $25 million
- Internal Medicine/Medicine - $21.5 million
- Biology - $14.2 million
- Ophthalmology - $13.4 million
- Microbiology/Immunology/Virology - $12.9 million
Interested in marketing lab products and supplies to active life science researchers in the well-funded USC marketplace? If so, exhibit at an upcoming BioResearch Product Faire™ Event in Los Angeles in 2016. These events bring together hundreds of life science suppliers with researchers, PI's, grad students, lab managers,professors, purchasing agents and other lab staff interested in finding the best and newest equipment and technologies to use in their lab.
The 2016 events at USC will be held on:
April 25, 2016 - 14th Semiannual BioResearch Product Faire™ Event
October 19, 2016 - 15th Semiannual BioResearch Product Faire™ Event
To learn more about participating in these upcoming events, please visit the link below:
