COLLABORATING FOR GREATER IMPACT

Research Centers

The Mann School’s mission of innovation includes major research centers, institutes and partnerships that drive discovery and lead the convergence of science, healthcare and policy.

Institute for Addiction Science

Center for Drug Discovery, Delivery and Development

Ginsburg Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics

D. K. Kim International Center for Regulatory Science

Center for Neuronal Longevity

Center for Quantitative Drug and Disease Modeling

Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics

Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute

Titus Center for Medication Safety and Population Health

Our alliances across USC include the Keck School of Medicine, Viterbi School of Engineering, Price School of Public Policy, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, Marshall School of Business, Gould School of Law, and Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. However, our research and teaching initiatives extend far beyond campus, with numerous external academic and industry partnerships across the nation and around the world. Frequent local collaborators include Caltech, Cedars-Sinai, City of Hope, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center, Keck Hospital of USC and RAND Corporation. Global partnerships extend throughout Asia, Europe, Australia, South America and Africa.

Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics

Advancing Health Policy

Under the leadership of founding Director Dana Goldman and Co-Director Erin Trish, the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics has received more than $64.5 million in government funding since its inception in 2009. More than $6 million of that amount is from NIH funding through the prestigious Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR). USC-RCMAR supports pilot projects by junior scholars focused on addressing disparities in the health and economic well-being of minority elderly populations with Alzheimer’s disease.

A collaboration between the USC Price School of Public Policy and the USC Mann School, the Schaeffer Center brings together health policy experts, a seasoned pharmacoeconomics team, faculty from across USC—including the Keck School of Medicine, the Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and the Viterbi School of Engineering—and affiliated researchers from other leading universities to solve pressing challenges in healthcare. Policymakers, the public and the media rely on our experts for evidence-based research and analysis of some of the most important topics in healthcare economics and policy today.

Institute for Addiction Science Overcoming Substance Dependence

Our nation faces a crisis of youth e-cigarette addiction, an opioid and overdose epidemic, increasing levels of alcohol abuse, the commercialization of the marijuana industry, and increasing addiction to and reliance on digital devices. Nearly 21 million Americans struggle with substance abuse, while another 17 million suffer from an alcohol use disorder.

To stem the tide of substance and alcohol use disorders, the Mann School is a key partner in the recently established USC Institute for Addiction Science, the nation’s first university-wide, comprehensive, transdisciplinary addiction institute. The institute brings together 80 faculty from

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10 colleges and schools—including medicine, social work, psychology, communication, public policy and engineering— and blends research, education, clinical services, public policy and community engagement to reduce addiction and improve the lives of those affected by it.

The Institute for Addiction Science is transforming addiction science to improve lives and free communities from the ravages of substance use and overdoses. By providing an infrastructure to support synergy and collaboration between researchers and educators, the institute is working to advance the science, awareness, prevention and treatment of addiction.

Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the D. K. Kim International Center for Regulatory Science

Accelerating Clinical Trials

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) recently awarded $8 million to the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). Launched in 2008 with a $56.8 million NIH award, CTSI helps speed the transformation of basic and clinical research into viable therapies and cures. The Mann School plays a key role in CTSI, a multifaceted resource focused on improving healthcare and outcomes through leading-edge research conducted in partnership with local communities.

The Regulatory Knowledge Support (RKS) Core within the Mann School’s D. K. Kim International Center for Regulatory Science and the Department of Regulatory and Quality Sciences will significantly further the new CIRM grant’s focus on cell and gene therapy clinical trials. Specifically, RKS will provide advice and assistance with FDA filings and support monitoring and auditing of investigator-initiated clinical trials.

The D. K. Kim Center is renowned for training, professional development, research and analysis that fosters regulatory harmonization to improve health globally. The center builds worldwide networks to foster uniform standards for maximum safety and effectiveness of drugs and devices, as well as to encourage greater international cooperation.

Ginsburg Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics

Fostering Boundary-Breaking Discovery

The USC Ginsburg Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics fuses medicine and engineering to develop therapeutic options for debilitating neurosensory disorders that currently have no cure. The interdisciplinary institute unites the Mann School with the Viterbi School of Engineering, Keck School of Medicine, and Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences to foster boundary-breaking discovery. The institute also bridges the academy and industry to speed these advances in neural and biomedical engineering to the people who need them. The institute’s inventions include the Argus II retinal implant, which uses electrical stimulation from a computer chip to help blind patients regain some vision.

Center for Drug Discovery, Delivery and Development Speeding Promising New Treatments to Patients

The Center for Drug Discovery, Delivery and Development validates new therapeutic targets identified in the laboratory and translates them into pharmacological breakthroughs. This interdisciplinary center’s diverse team of scientists includes expertise in pharmacology, toxicology, medicinal chemistry, synthetic chemistry, analytical and bioanalytical chemistry, preclinical models of efficacy and toxicology, delivery modes, clinical trials and regulatory science.

Center for Neuronal Longevity Preventing and Treating Neurodegenerative Disease

All neurodegenerative diseases share the common factor of being caused when neurons stop working or die. Currently available therapies slow the progression of some neurodegenerative disorders, but none can prevent, stop or reverse the damage—and many other disorders cannot even be slowed down.

A multidisciplinary team of worldrenowned researchers at the Keck School of Medicine, Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Viterbi School of Engineering are collaborating to pioneer bioengineering technologies for stopping the loss of neuron function so that neurodegenerative diseases of the eye and brain can be treated—and prevented. Building on decades of knowledge, the success of the world’s first FDA-approved retinal implant to restore sight to the blind and USC’s existing investments, the university established the Center for Neuronal Longevity in early 2022.

Using a pioneering approach, the USC researchers are delivering electromagnetic stimulation through a minimally invasive contact lens-like platform to slow, stop or even reverse the damage to nerve cells in the eye. Early preclinical studies have shown surface stimulation of the eye slows progressive blindness. And while their current focus is the eye, the researchers’ long-term goal is to apply the same technologies to alleviate neurodegenerative disorders of the brain, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Center for Quantitative Drug and Disease Modeling

Enhancing Methodological Innovation

Computing advances enable drug effectiveness and disease progression to be modeled with a predictive accuracy previously thought impossible. Just as quantitative modeling is revolutionizing medicine, the Center for Quantitative Drug and Disease Modeling is shaping how research data is recorded, managed and integrated to enhance the process of therapeutic discovery and development in order to improve population and individual health. The center is also a vital training ground for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and an increasingly called-upon international resource, on model-informed drug discovery and development.

Titus Center for Medication Safety and Population Health

Improving Safety in Prescription Medications

Established through a $5 million bequest, the new USC Titus Center for Medication Safety and Population Health aims to reduce hospitalizations and emergency room visits due to medication issues such as lack of adherence or dangerous drug interactions.

“Over $528 billion of avoidable spending occurs each year in the U.S. due to harm or inadequate results from medication, accounting for the third-leading cause of death,” says Steven Chen, associate dean for clinical affairs. “The Titus Center creates opportunities for pharmacists to ensure that all patients, regardless of socioeconomic status, attain optimal results from medication therapy.”

The Titus Center builds on the school’s foundational work in connecting community pharmacists to patients with persistently uncontrolled chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma. The center also houses the California Right Meds Collaborative, a network of health plans, pharmacies, and academic and professional organizations led by the Mann School. The aim is to advance the pharmacist’s role in achieving healthier patients and communities through comprehensive medication management—the standard of care for assessing every medicine a person uses to ensure appropriateness, effectiveness and safety. The school’s leadership of the initiative is supported by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.