Research Focus
USC Michelson Center CSI-Cancer is aimed at integrating patient, model system, and high-content single cell data to translate clinically observed correlations into a mechanistic understanding of the physical and biological underpinnings of cancer dynamics. The organizing framework of the physical dynamics of cancer at the lab will focus on the spatial distributions and temporal evolution of the disease at the cellular, human, and population scale.
Three complementary research projects, supported by one shared resource core, address the laboratory’s aims of:
developing a quantitative description of the transition between limited and disseminated cancer,
demarcating the complexity and alterations over time of a cancer in all its phases,
describing the temporal evolution of disease in patients with poor prognosis vs favorable prognosis.
Join the Team
For prospective graduate students, we are affiliated with Dornsife CLAS, Keck School of Medicine, and Viterbi School of Engineering. Please apply to the following Ph.D. programs:
Dornsife: Molecular Biology
Dornsife: Quantitative and Computational Biology
Keck: Programs in Biomedical and Biological Sciences (PIBBS),
Viterbi: Computer Science
Viterbi: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
For postdoctoral fellows and other inquiries, email kuhn42[]at[]usc[]dot[]edu
For current USC undergraduates, apply to the CURE program at cure.usc.edu.
Summer research opportunities at CSI-Cancer are also available to all college and high school students through the BUGS program
Collaborations
CSI-Cancer has built and will continue to build a larger collaborative network to disseminate its capabilities and to collaborate on evolving physical sciences concepts that could address specific challenges as part of the organizing framework within the institute and the scientific community at large. Solving the problems associated with the currently imperfect performance of our therapeutic interventions and making real improvements in patient outcomes requires the understanding of the disease as a dynamical system undergoing constant transitions in both time and space and using tools from biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science
The collaborative network shows the various disciplines and specialties working with us
Directions to CSI-Cancer
We are located on the 2nd floor of Michelson Hall at the University Park Campus of USC: 1002 Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089. While metered street parking is available on the streets ($1 per hour), the nearby spots are generally occupied. Parking permit for one of the USC parking structures can be arranged prior to the day of arrival, please contact the laboratory. Access into Michelson Hall is card-controlled, please arrange for someone to meet you in the lobby downstairs.