Promotions

We are pleased to announce the following Keck faculty promotions:

Our congratulations to all!

Genevieve F. Dunton, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences and Psychology

Dr. Dunton joined the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences in 2009. She received her PhD in psychology and social behavior from UC Irvine, her MPH from USC, and completed a cancer prevention fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Dunton’s research focuses on health promotion, specifically the links between diet, physical activity and cancer risk. Her key innovation is the use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA), which enables study participants to self-report their activity and food intake in real time and relate this to precise locations by GPS. Dr. Dunton is applying EMA to examine activity in children, teens and adults. Her findings take into account not only total exercise, but also how the built environment and social environment influence physical activity in different populations. Dr. Dunton’s application of new technology puts her at the forefront of a rapidly-moving field. Her work is funded by grants from the NIH and the American Cancer Society, and she publishes frequently in the top journals in her field.

Amir Goldkorn, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine

Dr. Goldkorn is a member of the section of genitourinary oncology in the division of oncology. After medical training and residency in medicine at UCLA, he moved to UCSF, where he completed a fellowship in hematology-oncology, and did additional post-doctoral work in the laboratory of Elizabeth Blackburn, the 2009 Nobel laureate. He joined the faculty of the Department of Medicine as an assistant professor in 2007. Dr. Goldkorn’s research and clinical focus is on biomarkers for cancer. Cancer is marked by formidable heterogeneity at every level, from patients, to tumor cells, to signaling pathways. To address this challenge, his research program focuses on three areas that offer unique opportunities to better understand and surmount cancer heterogeneity: circulating tumor cells (CTC), cancer stem cells (CSC), and telomerase activity. CTC and CSC are “hot” topics in current cancer research because they hold considerable promise for clinical use. To pursue this work, Dr. Goldkorn has been successful in securing major grant support from NIH and competitive private foundations. In particular, he is serving as PI on a multi-center prostate cancer clinical trial that was funded as an RO1 last year. In 2011, Dr. Goldkorn founded the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center Circulating Tumor Cell Research Core, where he serves as director. This core is an important resource for other clinical services to use CTC technologies in clinical trials.

Tracy C. Grikscheit, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery

Dr. Grikscheit graduated from Harvard University, and pursued medical training at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. She completed residency in general surgery and a research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by additional fellowship training in pediatric surgery at Seattle Children’s Hospital. In 2006, she joined the faculty of the Department of Surgery as an assistant professor. Dr. Grikscheit offers the rare combination of surgeon, teacher and scientist: her research on tissue engineering complements her clinical practice in pediatric surgery, and she trains pediatric surgery fellows at CHLA. Early in Dr. Grikscheit’s career, she recognized the critical need for better therapies for children with intestinal failure, a not uncommon developmental deficit in neonates. She has since focused her research towards growing segments of intestine in vitro from stem cells harvested from patients. Dr. Grikscheit has successfully pioneered her approach in rodents and pigs, and is now on the verge of proposing human clinical trials. As evidence of the excitement and broad interest of her work, Dr. Grikscheit was featured on the front page of the New York Times in 2012. She has received two major grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), as well as support from USC’s Coulter Translational Research Partnership and the Saban Research Institute.

Eugene S. Kim, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery (Clinical Scholar)

Dr. Kim joined the faculty of the Department of Surgery in May of 2014 as an associate professor of clinical surgery. He is based at CHLA. Before coming to USC, Dr. Kim was associate professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, where he had been a member of the faculty since 2007. Dr. Kim received his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and completed a residency in general surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia Campus. Dr. Kim spent two years as a fellow in pediatric surgery at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Kim’s research and clinical emphasis is on pediatric surgical oncology, with a particular interest in care and treatment for children with complex solid tumors. His laboratory research addresses angiogenesis and cancer stem cells in pediatric neuroblastoma, the most common extracranial solid cancer in childhood. His work has been funded by the Children’s Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation, St. Baldrick’s Foundation and by the NIH. Dr. Kim is editor-in-chief for the Journal of Case Reports and Clinical Research Studies and Recent Advancements in Pediatrics, and is a member of the editorial boards for eight additional journals. In addition to his work in pediatric oncology, Dr. Kim also specializes in surgical correction of chest wall deformities and anorectal malformations.

Chengyu Liang, PhD, Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology with tenure

Dr. Chengyu Liang was recruited to USC in 2009 as an assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology. Her research interests have focused on elucidating the roles of the UV-irradiation-resistance associated gene (UVRAG) in the regulation of autophagy and in viral entry, processes that may pave the way for novel anti-tumor agents as well as anti-viral agents for pathogens such as influenza, measles and the Ebola virus. She has been able to demonstrate that suppression of autophagy by the Bcl-2 oncogene product promotes the growth of breast tumor cells and that a viral version of the Bcl-2 oncogene (vBcl-2) is an important factor in the persistence and oncogenic properties of the human cancer-causing herpesvirus. These discoveries have the potential to add an entirely new approach to the treatment of cancer and viral infections. She has received several awards, including, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Fellowship Award, from 2007-2010, and her receipt of a Research Scholar award from the American Cancer Society, 2011-2015.

Keigo Machida, PhD, Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology with tenure

Dr. Keigo Machida was originally recruited to USC in 2006 as an assistant professor of research molecular microbiology and immunology. In 2008 he applied for and was selected by the Department to fill a tenure track assistant professor position. Dr. Machida has focused his research on the study of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and its role in the etiology of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), one of the most deadly of all cancers. He has made critically important observations in the molecular study of the HCV envelope protein and the association of environmental factors such as alcohol and obesity in the development of HCV initiated HCC. His demonstration that toll-like receptor 4 induction by the non-structural 5A protein of HCV mediates alcohol-induced synergistic liver damage and the subsequent development of HCC, is of particular clinical impact. His further work has provided important molecular mechanisms for the roles played independently by alcohol and obesity in the development of HCC. Given the high world-wide prevalence of chronic HCV infection, and the major role of HCV in the development of HCC with its high rate of lethality, this work has substantial clinical significance. Dr. Machida’s published work has appeared in the top specialty journals in the field including Hepatology, Gastroenterology, as well as more broadly based, higher impact journals such as Journal of Clinical Investigation and PNAS.

Nerses Sanossian, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology (Clinical Scholar)

Dr. Sanossian was recruited to the faculty of the Department of Neurology as a clinical instructor in 2004, after completing his medical training and residency in neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, followed by a fellowship in vascular neurology at UCLA. Dr. Sanossian’s research and clinical focus is on stroke, with a particular emphasis on pre-hospital therapy (by EMTs and paramedics) for patients who present with symptoms of stroke. Dr. Sanossian was instrumental in USC’s receipt of a $50 million gift from the Roxanna Todd Hughes Foundation to found the Roxanna Todd Hodges Transient Ischemic Attack clinic. He carries significant clinical responsibilities as medical director of the LAC+USC Stroke Clinic and the newly established stroke clinic at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital. Dr. Sanossian teaches medical students, residents and fellows. He has served as director of research in the neurology residency program, and is the founding director of the USC Stroke Fellowship program, accredited by the ACGME. Dr. Sanossian has been celebrated as Teacher of the Year for the Department of Neurology in 2007, 2009, 2012, and 2013. In 2010, he was also recognized with a Year IV Student Teaching Award.

Fredrick Schumacher, PhD, Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences with tenure

Dr. Fredrick Schumacher joined the faculty of the Keck School of Medicine in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences as an assistant professor on the tenure track in 2008. His research has centered around how environmental factors and genetics contribute to cancer risk, with emphasis on cancers of the colon, breast, and prostate. He has used GWAS (genome-wide association studies) to focus on both the initiation event in the development of cancer, as well as the effect of environmental factors, distinct metabolic traits and biomarkers on risk assessment and disease progression. He has developed resources to evaluate the clinical impact of genetic risk modeling, particularly in the approaches to clinical trials. Of particular importance, he has been successful in identifying multiple novel susceptibility loci associated with breast, prostate, colorectal, and germ cell tumors using the GWAS approach, and he has extended this work to include SNP analysis to more finely map the loci.

Amytis Towfighi, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology (Clinical Scholar)

Dr. Towfighi was recruited to the faculty of the Department of Neurology in 2007 as an assistant professor of clinical neurology, based at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. Dr. Towfighi earned an MD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and then completed neurology residency at Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. After residency, she spent an additional year in a vascular neurology fellowship at UCLA before joining the faculty at USC. She established and directs a new acute neurology unit at Rancho, where she also serves as chair of the Department of Neurology and associate chief medical officer. In 2014, Dr. Towfighi was appointed as director of neurological services and innovation for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. In addition to her administrative roles, Dr. Towfighi maintains an active research program in stroke intervention and health disparities research. In one arm of her research program, she studies the epidemiology of stroke, with an emphasis on gender disparities. Dr. Towfighi’s more recent research emphasizes community-based interventions to reduce the incidence of stroke. The focus is on lifestyle practices (healthy eating, regular exercise) with outpatient clinical mentoring in stroke patients. She has been recognized with a number of awards, including the Michael S. Pessin Stroke Leadership Prize from the American Academy of Neurology in 2013, and the Robert G. Siekert New Investigator Award in Stroke from the American Heart Association in 2012.

Guy Young, MD, Professor of Pediatrics (Clinical Scholar)

Dr. Young joined the faculty of the Department of Pediatrics as associate professor in 2007. He was appointed as a clinical scholar in 2011, and currently serves as director of the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Center at CHLA. Before coming to USC, Dr. Young was assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland, Loma Linda University, and at UCLA. Dr. Young received his MD from SUNY Stony Brook, and completed a residency in pediatrics at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He then trained as a fellow in pediatric hematology/oncology at the Children’s National Medical Center of the George Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Young’s research focuses on clotting disorders, both those where clotting is insufficient (hemophilia) and those where it is excessive (venous thrombosis). His clinical research emphasis is on the use of thromboelastography to monitor clot formation. As a relatively new clinical modality, there has been a need to develop standards for thromboelastography, and Dr. Young has led a working group to develop such standards. He has also participated in efforts to introduce a novel clotting agent (bivalirudin) for clinical use in children. Dr. Young’s research on thromboelastography received support from Novo Nordisk and GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Young gives frequent presentations for patients and their families. In 2013, he was selected as Physician of the Year by the National Hemophilia Foundation.

Jeffrey C. Wang, MD, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Neurological Surgery (Clinical Scholar)

Dr. Wang joined the faculty in 2013 as professor of clinical orthopaedic surgery and neurological surgery. Previously, he had served as professor of orthopaedic surgery and neurosurgery at UCLA, where he was chief of spine service and executive director of the Comprehensive Spine Center. Dr. Wang received his MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He was a resident in orthopaedic surgery at UCLA, and spent a fellowship year at Case Western Reserve University. In 1997, Dr. Wang returned to UCLA as an assistant professor. Dr. Wang’s research complements his clinical focus on surgical treatment of spine disorders. He is active in studies to improve bone regeneration and spinal fusion surgery as a treatment for intervertebral disc degeneration. His laboratory is also pursuing work on growth factors and stem cells as possible therapeutic targets for regeneration of the intervertebral discs. This is an important clinical problem, since disc degeneration is common with aging, and a major source of pain and disability in older adults. Since his arrival at USC, Dr. Wang has established a combined orthopaedic surgery/neurosurgery spine surgery fellowship.