Recent news: May.2007 Many congratulations Anna! Anna has been awarded the fellowship. September.2006 Shih's Gotta Have It For decades this world-famous USC bioscientist – a product of the modern Chinese diaspora – dreamed of reuniting her compatriots in science. Last summer, it happened big-time in Beijing. Of those who were there – including an extraordinary assemblage of the world’s best scientific leaders – many believe the meeting last July in Beijing will be seen as a milestone in the evolution of China’s biological sciences, and indeed in all that nation’s sciences, casting a shadow forward for decades ..... Drugs Engine - 2006 May.2006 Researchers Detect New Enzyme Function The discovery builds on Shih’s pioneering molecular research on the MAO enzymes spanning the last three decades. University Professor Jean C. Shih has published her latest research findings, the identification of a signaling pathway and its impact on cell growth and death, in the July 7 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ..... USC News and Features - 2006 September.2005 MAO’s Revolutionary Researcher Jean Shih has followed mice and men down a winding road to understanding a pair of crucial brain enzymes. The riddle Jean Shih has been unraveling through her entire professional career is posed by the singular record of an unfortunate family in Holland.

 The males consistently displayedaggressive behavior of an exaggerated and pathological kind – so consistent that scientists suspected it had a genetic root.

 Careful testing found a specific neurochemical deficit among the men of this family: their brains were deficient in producing an enzyme called monoamine monoxidase (MAO) .... USC Trojan Family Magazine - 2005 January.2005 Bringing Science to a Wide Audience One is a Chinese-born scientist known for her groundbreaking research on the MAO gene, presenting the first tangible evidence that violence has a biological basis. The other, a Los Angeles native, is a film scholar and prize-winning multimedia producer whose works have focused significantly on violence and culture. Each has the title of University Professor, the only two women so distinguished at USC. Jean Shih, professor in the schools of pharmacy and medicine, and Marsha Kinder, professor in the USC School of Cinema-TV, associate vice provost for research-humanities and director of the Labyrinth Project at the Annenberg Center for Communication, have joined forces to create a transmedia project showcasing Shih's pioneering molecular research on MAO genes and their connection to aggressive and anxious behaviors in her laboratory mice and in ..... USC Annenberg Center -2005 September.2004 Anxious Mice May Parallel Men A spontaneous mutation in a strain of mice has created what may be the ultimate model for studying behaviors such as anxiety, aggression and stress-related disorders, according to researchers from the USC School of Pharmacy and the Keck School of Medicine of USC. The mutation, the brain chemistry and the behavioral changes it produces are detailed in a recent issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, which named it Paper of the Week for its significance and overall importance. Jean C. Shih, the Boyd and Elsie Welin Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology in the USC School of Pharmacy and principal investigator on this study, is internationally known for groundbreaking studies of the brain enzyme monoamine oxidase. Monoamine oxidase, or MAO, appears to work by bringing about the oxidation of various neurotransmitters .... Science Daily - 2004 January.2004 Spontaneous mutation produces new MAO A/B knockout mouse A combination of luck and scientific curiosity has produced a mouse lacking two isoenzymes, MAO A and MAO B, that have been linked to violent criminal behavior and Parkinson's disease. The MAO A/B knockout mouse should provide an excellent model in which to address the specific roles of these neurotransmitters and their receptors in anxiety and stress-related disorders. The research appears as the "Paper of the Week" in the September 17 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal. Medical News Today - 2004 September.2001 Help for aggression linked to MAOA gene mutation? Researchers believe the dis-covery of genetic influences on aggression will open the door to effective treatment, and a new animal study is already pointing toward a novel gene therapy for one tentatively- identified "aggression gene." In 1993, H. G. Brunner and colleagues reported on a large Dutch family in which males exhibited extreme aggressive tendencies and borderline mental retardation. The researchers found that the impulsive, aggressive males in this family have a mutation in the gene coding for the enzyme monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), which metabolizes several neurotransmitters (see related article, Crime Times, 1995, Vol. 1, No. 3, Page 1). Separate research has shown that mice deficient in MAOA also show high rates of aggression. Studying mice genetically engineered to be MAOA-deficient, Jean Shih and colleagues tested the effects of ginkgo biloba, a common herbal remedy that appears to have complex effects on neurotransmitters. The researchers note that aggressive mice deficient in MAOA have abnormal brain levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine..... Crime Times -2001 September.1996 A Tg8 is born with its brain awash in an excess of serotonin, a neurotransmitter chemical that helps regulate mood and mental health, and [Jean Chen] Shih and her co-workers believe that that excess greatly contributes to the mouse's fierce temper. The scientist grabs Mutant 9 by the tail, lifts the mouse out of its cage, and lowers it into another, identical container, the reeking, sawdust-floored home of Mutant 4. Blind and jittery, the mice are freaks of nature, products of a genetic engineering experiment that did not go exactly as planned. But, oddly, their encounter in this fifth-floor laboratory at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy may...... 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