FACILITATING DISCOVERY

Current and future scientists and scholars deserve the most advanced facilities possible to conduct leading-edge research. The Mann School has made significant recent investments in our laboratory facilities to support the faculty’s growing research portfolio as well as student projects—while also providing a crucial resource for the larger community of scientific experts who partner with the school on vital projects. Multiple core laboratories with state-of-theart equipment suites and teams of skilled

Visual distribution of two different lipids (overlay) in mice brains. The Mann School’s rapifleX Tissuetyper enables MALDI mass spectrometry imaging to advance biomarker discovery and therapeutic development research.

572 USERS OF TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH LABORATORY IN FY22 research support staff offer unparalleled opportunities for training future researchers. In addition, the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics—a partnership between the USC Mann School and the USC Price School of Public Policy—leverages the data and tools necessary to help answer significant questions in health policy with evidence-based solutions. The school’s resources support investigators across USC’s campuses as well as those from industry and other academic institutions.

Core Laboratory Support

The Translational Research Laboratory features more than 85 highly specialized instruments for applications to analyze molecules, cells, tissues, organs and whole animals. Capabilities include sample processing, cell and immunobiology, flow cytometry, next-generation RNA/DNA sequencing, confocal microscopy and wholemouse imaging.

The Histology Laboratory supports all research needs in histology and pathology— from tissue processing to sectioning and staining. Advanced equipment includes a cryostat for cryogenic temperature control and a microtome for precise sectioning of samples.

The Lentiviral Laboratory provides services related to producing small-scale retrovirus stocks to aid researchers in solving vexing medical mysteries and generating platforms for innovative drug discovery and development.

The Multi-Omics Mass Spectrometry Core offers comprehensive quantitative analytical support in proteomics, metabolomics and lipidomics. Uniquely, the core is the only facility at USC to offer the latest technology in imaging mass spectrometry (IMS), which allows characterization of the molecular signatures of complex mixtures of biomolecules at the cellular level and correlation with histomorphological features from tissues and structural and functional features from 3D imaging. Knowledge of the molecular content (proteins, peptides, lipids, metabolites, glycans, drugs and their metabolites) will help transform the discovery and validation of tissue biomarkers to improve disease diagnosis, prognosis and evaluation of treatment response. IMS has fast become the industry standard for characterizing drug-delivery methods, tissue distribution, drug screening and efficacy, thus advancing drug discovery and development.

The Medicinal Chemistry Core’s mission is to provide support to all faculty and students’ synthetic organic/medicinal chemistry needs while assisting the larger scientific community. The core offers advanced technology and equipment, including machine-learning software, reaction microwave, combiflash and reverse phase prep purification systems to aid drug design, target validation, and hit-to-lead and lead optimization studies through medicinal chemistry structure-activity relationship.

External Partnerships

Outside o rg anizations using Mann School core facilities

8BioMed

Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine

GenVivo Inc.

Kaiser Family Foundation

Mozza Foods

Natural History

Museum of Los

Angeles County

Pelage

Pharmaceuticals

University of Iowa

22 ,503 sq ft WET LABORATORY SPACE

3,533 sq ft

SPACE