Hastings Center holds 2nd annual symposium

Over 150 researchers affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Hastings Center for Pulmonary Research (HCPR) gathered on March 9, 2018 at the Catherine and Joseph Aresty Conference Center to attend the 2nd HCPR Symposium, The Pulmonary Challenge: From Development to Disease. The symposium was organized by Drs. Zea Borok and Amy Ryan (Firth).

The event highlighted recent advances in the fields of lung development, and lung stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, and included nationally recognized investigators from medical schools and research institutes from across the county. They were welcomed by Laura Mosqueda, MD, Interim Dean, Keck School of Medicine of USC, and Zea Borok, MD, Director of the Hastings Center, Hastings Professor and Ralph Edgington Chair in Medicine and Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the Keck School.

The day-long symposium featured eight presentations thematically grouped in three sessions to focus on development and stem cells, application of novel technologies for study of lung biology, and translation to disease. Each session was moderated by a Keck School faculty member, including Parviz Minoo, PhD, Hastings Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Ite Offringa, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Associate Dean for Graduate Affairs (Ph.D. programs), and Amy Ryan (Firth), PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, respectively.

The HCPR is supported by the generosity of the Hastings Foundation through a $7.5 million gift over five years to create a nationally recognized center of excellence in lung research at the Keck School of Medicine. Hastings Foundation Board members Gene Gregg (President), John Reith and Dr. Richard Zeiss attended the Symposium and were gratified by the outstanding attendance, the high quality of the talks and the active audience participation in discussion following each presentation.

–Eric Weintraub