The Department of Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC has been a leader in its field since its founding in 1977 and has made many noteworthy contributions to the understanding of public health and disease etiology, treatment, and prevention. These include pioneering research on the relationship between hormones and cancer, the ability of exercise to reduce breast cancer risk, demonstration of the impact of air pollution on childhood lung function development, advances in the etiology, treatment and prevention of pediatric obesity, as well as novel methodological research focusing on the interaction between genes and the environment. The foundation for many of these advances stems from a highly collaborative faculty implementing a transdisciplinary approach to research – an approach hallmarked by the integration of biologically and behaviorally motivated hypotheses, advanced technology, and extensive study populations. Such examples include one of the first research groups to exploit the Cancer Surveillance Program to enhance population-based studies of disease, the use of multiple ethnic groups within the Multiethnic Cohort Study to localize genetic findings, and the integration of Geographic Information Systems in the Children's Health Study to create a detailed history of the pollution within the Los Angeles basin to investigate its potential influence on patterns of childhood diseases.
The Department of Preventive Medicine has a blend of expertise, research, and teaching that makes it unique among departments in the University. Between its five diverse divisions, Preventive Medicine is home to worldwide authorities on prevention research in biostatistics, environmental health, health behavior, epidemiology, and bioinformatics. The department's faculty members are widely sought for peer review and advisory activities and participate in diverse committees of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Our research is at the very core of our goals to promote the public health of diverse populations in the California and Pacific Rim region. This is also reflected in our training programs with undergraduate degrees in Health Promotion and Global Health and advanced degrees in Public Health, Global Medicine, Biostatistics, Applied Biostatistics & Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Molecular Epidemiology, and Statistical Genetics & Genetic Epidemiology. Our strong history, coupled with our talented faculty and the ability to utilize new technologies, places USC in a position to be a leader in many future discoveries and in the training of the next generation of prevention/public health researchers.
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President Barack Obama has announced his intent to appoint University of Southern California (USC) Professor Jonathan M. Samet to the National Cancer Advisory Board.
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Using the 2008 Beijing Olympics as their laboratory, Keck School of Medicine of USC researchers and colleagues have found biological evidence that even a short-term reduction in air pollution exposure improves one’s cardiovascular health.
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New research from the Keck School of Medicine of USC shows that, while stress and depression levels surge when a Chinese teenager thinks he earns less money than his peers, psychological health remains steady when he thinks he earns the same as or more than his peers.
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USC researchers have published research that has determined the molecular fingerprint of thousands of breast cancer tumors. The research offers clues that could help physicians tailor treatment to individual patients, especially those who suffer from rare cancers with poor outcomes.
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Minorities with cancer may be more susceptible to complications of the disease, especially when obesity comes into play, according to research presented by a Keck School of Medicine professor at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2012.
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Technological advances in cancer genetics can help doctors prescribe more personalized treatments, but the challenge is learning how to leverage that technology, according to a presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2012.
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Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have identified a potential new drug target for hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer in adults.
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A global team of microbiologists led by the Keck School of Medicine has identified a critical protein in the fight against bacterial and fungal infections like tuberculosis and ringworm, laying the groundwork for scientists to develop target-specific drugs that have fewer side effects.
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