Massry Winners Tell Tales of Discovery

NOVEMBER 6 • 2015 PUBLISHED FOR THE USC HEALTH SCIENCES CAMPUS COMMUNITY VOLUME 21 • NUMBER 202 Keck School welcomes parents, honors scholarship donors Symposium offers insight about med school Luncheon focuses on legacy of excellence By Melissa Masatani by the Parents Association By Melissa Masatani of my former students comes early 100 proud par- in Mayer Auditorium. mid a celebration of up and says, ‘I’m mentoring Nents got a glimpse of “Each of your children Asome of the best and this student, so this is your the daily lives of their sons is an individual to us,” said brightest at the Keck School grandchild.’ Just like we pass and daughters on Oct. 23 Raquel Arias, MD, who holds of Medicine of USC, Cheryl on our scientific knowledge, during an annual sympo- associate dean positions for Mae Craft, PhD, was thinking we need to pass on our pas- sium at the Keck School admissions and educational about her “grandchildren” sions and love for science.” of Medicine of USC. affairs and is an associate — the students of her former Craft was one of more than Family members toured professor of obstetrics and students, her legacy of physi- 150 people who gathered the Health Sciences Cam- gynecology. “Each of your cians and researchers from for the 10th annual Keck pus and heard from school children means something to years in the classroom. Scholarship Luncheon, held leaders, including Henri R. us, and we promise you we “I have a lot of adopted sci- Oct. 28 at the California Club Ford, MD, MFA, vice dean will give them the care we entific children,” said Craft, in Downtown Los Angeles. In for medical education, as well would give to our own child.” Cohn Steve the Mary D. Allen Chair in addition to thanking donors as a panel of students during The symposium, formerly Scholarships helped 2015 graduate Vision Research. “And it just for their continued support, the afternoon event hosted See PARENTS, page 4 Allison Wu attain her medical degree. pleases me so much when one See SCHOLARSHIPS, page 4 Massry winners tell tales of discovery By Amanda Busick teria in order to protect the he unlikely sequence integrity of Danisco’s starter Tof discovery that turned cultures, which are integral a cheese-making innovation in the production of cheese, in Denmark into a precise yogurt and other foods. tool for genome-editing What Horvath discovered that has swept through is that bacteria are capable biomedical laboratories of defending themselves around the world was the against repeated infec- subject of the annual Massry tions by viruses known as Prize lecture on Oct. 29. bacteriophages, which are “Few discoveries trans- commonly found in milk and form a discipline overnight,” other raw food materials. Photos by Virginia Baca Virginia by Photos Doctors and their patients take the field at the Coliseum during the USC-Utah football game on Oct. 24. said Elizabeth Fini, PhD, di- “Because the fermenta- rector of the Institute for Ge- tions are done in conditions netic Medicine at the Keck that are not sterile, phages Cancer survivors and their doctors School of Medicine of USC, may be able to propagate in during her introduction of production settings,” Hor- two of the three winners of vath said about the problem take the field to raise awareness this year’s Meira and Shaul he was trying to solve. “If o mark Breast Cancer G. Massry Prize. “But biolo- the level of phages reaches a TAwareness Month, a gists can manipulate cells in high value, it can have a very team of physicians and staff ways never possible before” severe impact on fermenta- from Keck Medicine of USC thanks to a discovery about tion, which can lead to a joined cancer survivors on the bacterial immune system total fermentation failure.” the field during the Oct. 24 referred to as CRISPR (clus- The breakthrough? USC Trojan football game tered regularly interspaced Exposing bacteria to bac- against Utah. short palindromic repeats). teriophages actually made During the break at the The technology devel- them immune to future end of the first quarter of oped from efforts led by attacks, and Horvath and play, a video about breast one of the Massry Prize his team deduced that cancer was played on the recipients, Philippe Horvath, CRISPR sequences held giant video screen inside PhD, a senior scientist at the key. Then they mapped the Coliseum and the crowd the Denmark-based food out a method to protect recognized a group of nine company Danisco (later their prized cultures. doctors and patients on the acquired by DuPont). He Enter Emmanuelle field with a standing ovation. told a capacity crowd in Charpentier, PhD, the It was an “awesome Mayer Auditorium about director of the Max Plank moment,” said one of the Cancer survivor Jenna Kim and physician Darcy V. Spicer were among the origins of his team’s Institute for Infection See GAME, page 2 those on hand to raise awareness about breast cancer detection. research — studying bac- See MASSRY, page 4 Surgeon who treated high-profile patients in Latin America joins USC Urology Institute By Les Dunseith presidential elections. of operations was in Caracas, he newest addition Rene Sotelo, MD, joined Venezuela, which is his Tto the urology staff at the USC staff on Aug. 3 as home country, but he had Keck Medicine of USC will professor of clinical urology at become known throughout fit right in working in a city the USC Institute of Urology, Latin America as a leader in noted for its celebrities — just a few days after perform- the use of robotic surgery to he’s been doing surgeries on ing a robotic prostatectomy in treat urologic cancers and high-profile patients in Latin Bogota, Colombia, on Oscar benign conditions. Sotelo has America for years. One of Iván Zuluaga, an economist published more than 50 peer his final cases before arriving who was the nominee of the reviewed scientific papers in Los Angeles, in fact, was Democratic Center political and 28 chapters in major urol- a successful prostate cancer party in the 2014 presidential ogy books. Urfalian Van surgery on the runner-up election. So, when Zuluaga received Rene Sotelo is known throughout Latin America as a leader in the use in Colombia’s most recent At the time, Sotelo’s base See SOTELO, page 3 of robotic surgery to treat urologic cancers and benign conditions. NOVEMBER 6 • 2015 2 Breast, ovarian cancer risk may have association with sense of smell By Margaret Trtryan in the females. When the females that BRCA1 mutations do not only he association between men- were exposed to male bedding, those influence these tissues directly, but Tstrual cycle activity and breast with the BRCA1 mutation restarted also indirectly by changing how and ovarian cancer risk may have an estrous faster than the wild-type they communicate with other cells. unexpected intermediary — odors. mice. This research is one of several Keck Medicine of USC research- To confirm that the results were examples shown in my laboratory ers have discovered for the first time mediated by the ovary indepen- where BRCA1 controls how different that the estrous cycle (the equivalent dently of the nose, the scientists cells communicate from a distance. of human menstrual cycle) in mice transplanted ovaries from mice with If we can understand how disrup- carrying a mutation known to cause the BRCA1 mutation into wild-type tion in such communications leads familial predisposition to breast and mice and also transplanted ovaries to elevated cancer risk in BRCA1 ovarian cancer in humans is more from normal mice into the geneti- mutation carriers, we can develop readily stimulated by scent than in cally engineered mice carrying the therapies to control these cancers, normal mice. Even more surpris- Research author Louis Dubeau mutation. The wild-type mice with including perhaps therapies based on ing was the finding that the ovary, the BRCA1 mutation present in their smell.” independently of the nose, mediated which in turn is an established risk ovarian transplants responded more Other USC researchers who the olfactory signals. factor for breast and ovarian cancer.” quickly when introduced to the male contributed to the study include Ying “This research indicates that a The research was published Oct. scent than mutant mice with wild- Liu, Yuan Tang, Elena Enbom and better sense of smell may contribute 21 in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS type ovarian transplants carrying the Theresa Austria of the Department to the elevated cancer risk of women ONE. mutation in all tissues except the of Pathology, Vasu Punj of the USC with BRCA1 mutations,” said cor- Springing off the observation that ovary. Norris Comprehensive Cancer Cen- responding author Louis Dubeau, menstrual cycles often synchronize “We’ve known for a long time that ter Bioinformatics Core and Division MD, PhD, professor of pathology between female college roommates, smell receptors are expressed in all of Hematology, Frank Z. Stanczyk, and medical director of molecular indicating some sort of communica- kinds of tissues, but we know very Yvonne G. Lin and Sara Mucowski pathology, USC Norris Comprehen- tion with environmental signals, the little about what these receptors do of the Department of Obstetrics and sive Cancer Center. “We found that scientists compared female mice outside of the nose,” Dubeau said. Gynecology and Nancy Wu, Hai- the presence of the mutation in the genetically engineered to carry the “Only certain tissues in the breast Yun Yen and Robert Maxson of the ovary mediated a stronger response BRCA1 mutation to normal, or wild- and reproductive organs have an Department of Biochemistry and to scent, implying that the mutation type mice.

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