NOVEMBER 6 • 2009 TheWeekly PUBLISHED FOR THE USC HEALTH SCIENCES CAMPUS COMMUNITY VOLUME 15 • NUMBER 34 Steven Sample announces retirement as USC president Steven B. Sample, presi- rankings, an increase that is dent of the University of unprecedented for its rapidity Southern California since and magnitude. 1991, will retire in August “For Kathryn and me the 2010, he announced Nov. presidency of USC has been 2. Sample is widely cred- far more than just a job,” said ited with bringing about an Sample. “It has been a calling, institutional rise at USC that an all-consuming passion to ‘For Kathryn and is unparalleled in American move this university ahead higher education. farther and faster than any me the presidency Under Sample’s leader- other university in the United of USC has been ship, the university became States. We have been blessed a highly selective under- to have pursued this mission far more than just graduate institution, drove in the company of many col- a job. It has been faculty excellence to new leagues and friends who share levels; completed the largest our commitment to USC’s a calling, an all- fundraising campaign in the advancement. Our years here consuming passion history of higher education; have simply been exhilarat- Veronica Jauriqui Veronica to move this created a global network of ing.” scholars and programs, espe- At his annual Address to the Faculty on Feb. 10, 2009, USC President Steven B. Among USC’s milestones in university ahead cially around the Pacific Rim; Sample announces USC’s acquisition of two hospitals, a major event in his tenure. the past 19 years is a national farther and faster built successful partnerships record-setting fundraising in its neighborhoods to spur desire to be excellent. Again in March 1991, after service as campaign. At its conclu- than any other economic and educational and again he would achieve president of the University at sion in December 2002, the university in the development; and embraced his objectives for the univer- Buffalo of The State Univer- campaign had raised $2.85 its place as the largest private sity but would then push even sity of New York. billion. During Sample’s United States.’ employer and key social force harder, urging everyone to Under Sample’s leadership, presidency USC became the in the City of Los Angeles. reach for even higher goals. USC has become world- only American university to —USC President USC Board of Trustees If there were a tag line for renowned in the fields of have received five gifts of Chairman Edward P. Roski, his leadership style, it would communication and multi- $100 million or more: Steven B. Sample Jr., president and chief execu- be ‘Never let up.’ And the media technologies, received • $112.5 million from Alfred tive officer of Majestic Realty results have been nothing national acclaim for its innova- Mann to establish the USC Company, said: “Dr. Sample short of spectacular. Filling tive community partnerships, Alfred Mann Institute for has engineered the most his shoes will be a big job for and solidified its status as Biomedical Engineering dramatic rise in quality and the trustees in our search for one of the nation’s leading • $110 million from the ranking of any American uni- Sample’s successor.” research universities. Dur- W. M. Keck Foundation to versity. From the very start he Steven B. Sample became ing his tenure USC climbed endow the Keck School of understood the entrepreneur- the 10th president of the Uni- 25 points in the annual U.S. Medicine of USC ial zeal of USC and fueled our versity of Southern California News & World Report college See SAMPLE, page 5 Samet highlights global health at Taiwan conference CIRM awards $16 million By Katie Neith in economics, energy, health and digital Jonathan Samet, Flora L. Thornton Chair of technology to examine current global chal- to USC vision researchers the Department of Preventive Medicine at the lenges and explore the potential for change. Keck School of Medicine, recently reached an Attendees included USC trustees, alumni, By Meghan Lewit $250 million to 14 multidisci- international audience with messages about friends and business leaders from around the Physician-researchers at plinary teams of researchers global health during two sessions at USC’s Pacific Rim. USC received a nearly $16 in California, the UK and 2009 Global Conference in Taiwan. On Oct. 30, Samet, who is the found- million grant from the Califor- Canada to develop stem Held in Taipei on Oct. 29 – 31, the sold-out ing director of the USC Institute for Global nia Institute for Regenerative cell-based therapies for 11 conference brought together leading experts Health, delivered a keynote presentation Medicine (CIRM) to fund diseases. The Disease Team titled “Global Health: Saving Billions at a the development of a Research Awards Time.” The speech was an overview of health stem cell-based treat- mark the first CIRM challenges that people around the world face, ment for age-related funding explicitly including chronic diseases, spreading epidem- macular degen- expected to result in ics, obesity and tobacco. In addition, Samet eration, the leading a filing with the FDA touched on recent initiatives for promoting cause of vision loss to begin a clinical global health and possible solutions for posi- and blindness among trial. tive change. the elderly. The grants In his speech, Samet noted that “we face Mark Humayun, received formal ever more complex problems with global professor of oph- Mark Humayun approval on Oct. 29 reach, but we are also gaining experience with thalmology, cell and from the Indepen- developing globally reaching solutions.” neurobiology, and dent Citizens Over- He also participated in a panel discussion on biomedical engineering at sight Committee (ICOC), the Oct. 31 about air pollution in Asia. Joining him the Keck School of Medicine 29-member governing board on the panel were Junfeng (Jim) Zhang, from of USC and the USC Viterbi of the institute, and were an- Rutgers University, and Chang-Chuan Chan School of Engineering, and nounced at a press conference from National Taiwan University. The group David R. Hinton, Gavin S. held in Los Angeles. discussed local concerns about high concentra- Herbert Professor of Retinal Age-related macular degen- tions of pollution in Asia and how it relates Research and Professor of Pa- eration (AMD) is a progressive to health worldwide. They also talked about thology and Ophthalmology at disease that causes distortion strategies for control. the Keck School of Medicine, in central vision and eventu- In an interview prior to the conference, will lead the four-year study. ally leads to blindness. Jonathan Samet speaks at the 2009 Global Conference. See SAMET, page 6 CIRM and two internation- It is estimated that by 2020, al partners awarded more than See CIRM, page 2 NOVEMBER 6 • 2009 CIRM: Grant targets leading cause of blindness Continued from page 1 more than 450,000 Califor- Co-investigators bring expertise to bear on stem cell therapies nians will suffer from vision loss or blindness due to AMD. Three other USC faculty members will sor of pathology at the Keck School, is a Effective treatment for the also serve as co-investigators on other major co-investigator on a nearly $20 million grant disease may be achieved by CIRM-funded studies aimed at accelerating aimed at developing novel drugs that destroy replacing damaged retinal pig- the pace of bringing stem cell therapies to cancer stem cells in solid tumors. ment epithelium—the layer the clinic. The University of California, Los Angeles of cells at the back of the Paula Cannon, associate professor of (UCLA) is the lead institution on the study. eye—and retinal cells with molecular microbiology and immunology at Press’s lab will be involved in some of the healthy ones derived from the Keck School of Medicine, is co-inves- pre-clinical studies and in the identification ‘The funding human embryonic stem cells, tigator on a team that received $14 million of characteristics of cells targeted by the from CIRM will Humayun said. to develop a novel therapy that may offer therapeutic agents. The lab will also develop “The funding from CIRM lifetime immunity to HIV infection. The assay methods to identify particular biomark- be tremendously will be tremendously help- study received the highest scientific score ers in the target cells, he said. helpful and ful and will accelerate our from CIRM’s governing board. “Based on preliminary data from our team, research towards achieving Cannon’s preliminary data on a specific we will focus on two disease targets—brain will accelerate a near-term stem cell-based protein that acts as a cell gateway for HIV led gliomas and colon carcinomas—as we have our research therapy for AMD,” he said. to a collaboration between USC, lead institu- relatively advanced knowledge of their towards achieving Humayun was elected tion City of Hope National Medical Center cancer stem cells and a mature methodology last month to the prestigious and the biotech company Sangamo BioSci- of isolation,” he said. a near-term Institute of Medicine for ences Inc., which makes the gene-editing Thomas Coates, professor of pediatrics stem cell based his groundbreaking work to technology. and pathology at the Keck School of Medi- restore sight to the blind. The research will be aimed at extracting cine, is co-investigator on a team headed by therapy for age- Election to the institute is stem cells from the patients, which can then researchers at UCLA that received $9 million related macular considered one of the highest be re-engineered and replaced in the body to explore treating sickle cell disease (SCD) honors in the fields of health without the protein that allows HIV to enter using a gene therapy approach to modify degeneration.’ and medicine and recog- the cells.