CHPA is pleased to recognize and celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. We will feature inspiring medical professionals throughout the month who have changed the course of medicine.
Honoring Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga
Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga is a board-certified physician and pediatric immunologist from Massachusetts. She has been at the forefront of pediatric HIV/AIDS research throughout her career and has received numerous accolades for her life-changing research, including a Scholar Award and the Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
In 2013, Luzuriaga was named by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, along with two colleagues, for functionally curing a newborn of AIDS. She is currently a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Vice Provost for Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Director of the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science.
Join us in celebrating the life and work of Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga!
Honoring Dr. Min Chueh Chang (1908-1991)
Dr. Min Chueh Chang was born in 1908 in Tai Yuan, China, and he received his bachelor’s degree in animal physiology from Tsing Hua University in 1933. After graduating, Chang remained at the university to teach and study nerve cells. In 1939, he accepted an invitation to study ram spermatozoa at Cambridge University.
In 1959, Chang demonstrated that eggs from a female black rabbit could be fertilized in vitro by the sperm of a male black rabbit. This series of steps helped form the basis of the in vitro fertilization of human ova by Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards, which later led to the birth of the first “test-tube baby,” Louise Joy Brown, on July 25, 1978.
Throughout his career, Chang made a number of important scientific discoveries that influenced a number of technologies, including the oral contraceptive pill, and in vitro fertilization. Chang received numerous awards for his contributions, including the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 1954, the Ortho Medal and Award by the American Fertility Society in 1961, the Hartman Award by the Society for the Study of Fertility in 1971, the Wippman Scientific Research Award by Planned Parenthood in 1987, and he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1990.
Join us in celebrating the life and work of Dr. Min Chueh Chang!
Honoring Dr. David Ho (b. 1952)
Dr. David Ho is a Taiwanese American physician named TIME's Man of the Year in 1996 for his research proving that HIV replicates immediately when entering a patient's bloodstream. When HIV was first discovered in the 1980s, scientists believed that the virus lay dormant in patients for years before attacking the immune system, and medication was withheld until patients exhibited visible symptoms of full-blown AIDS. His research led to the introduction of drugs to slow the virus's advance immediately upon detection.
He also championed combination anti-retroviral therapy instead of single therapy, which turned HIV from absolute terminal disease into a chronic disease. Ho is currently leading a team, funded by the Jack Ma Foundation, to look for a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus and believes that other treatments that may become effective against COVID-19 should be examined.
Join us in celebrating the life and work of Dr. David Ho!