{"id":791,"date":"2016-03-25T11:31:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T18:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/new-usc-researcher-joseph-t-rodgers-interprets-stem-cell-signals\/"},"modified":"2023-11-19T12:10:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-19T20:10:13","slug":"new-usc-researcher-joseph-t-rodgers-interprets-stem-cell-signals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/new-usc-researcher-joseph-t-rodgers-interprets-stem-cell-signals\/","title":{"rendered":"New USC researcher Joseph T. Rodgers interprets stem cell signals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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New USC researcher Joseph T. Rodgers interprets stem cell signals<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n Cristy Lytal<\/span>\n \n March 25, 2016<\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n \n
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Joseph T. Rodgers (Photo by Cristy Lytal)<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\r\n\r\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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For Joseph T. Rodgers, the path to becoming an assistant professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine<\/a> at USC began in the woods of Ohio.
\n\u201cMy dad is a chemical engineer, and he\u2019s always been an outdoorsy person,\u201d said Rodgers. \u201cYou just go off in the woods and all that goes along with that \u2014 fishing, catching frogs and turtles, and stuff like that. That was certainly how everything started.\u201d
\nRodgers grew up 30 miles from Cleveland in a rural area that he describes as \u201cwhere the suburbs meet the forest.\u201d He attended Catholic schools, and double majored in biology and chemistry and gained his first research experience at the Jesuit-run John Carroll University. To this day, the philosophy of the Jesuits influences Rodgers, although he no longer considers himself formally religious.
\n\u201cThe main philosophy of the Jesuits is service,\u201d he said. \u201cMy interpretation of service is expanding knowledge through research and education. That\u2019s a main driving force of why I\u2019m here today. I had a lot of really great professors in college and in graduate school who really inspired me, who really made this science interesting. And that\u2019s what I want to be while I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n