UC Irvine Health’s Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center said two new leukemia endowed research chairs would be named through a $5 million gift from the Chao family.
The donation is from Chao siblings Allen Chao, Agnes Kung, Phylis Hsia and Richard Chao and their spouses. The newly endowed chairs honor researchers Richard Van Etten and Susan O’Brien.
Van Etten directs the cancer center. His research on leukemia spurred drug development targeting an abnormal protein involved in the disease.
The gift is also expected to go toward research into blood cancers and cancers with hereditary links.
UC Irvine Health is the clinical, medical education and research enterprises of the University of California-Irvine.
Chao family members have given about $30 million to UC Irvine Health, beginning in the mid-1990s.
Allen Chao is chief executive of Tanvex BioPharma Inc. in Irvine and co-founded generic drugmaker Watson Pharmaceuticals.
