A $2.5 million gift from Allen Y. Chao, Ph.D., and his wife, Lee Hwa-Chao, will establish an endowed chair in developmental cancer therapeutics.
Yun Yen, M.D., Ph.D., co-leader of the comprehensive cancer center’s Developmental Cancer Therapeutics Program and director of the Department of Clinical and Molecular Pharmacology, has been named the first holder of the Dr. & Mrs. Allen Y. Chao Chair in Developmental Cancer Therapeutics.
 Yun Yen is the first holder of the Dr. & Mrs. Allen Y. Chao Chair in Developmental Cancer Therapeutics. (Photo courtesy Kaminsky Productions) |
Chao is co-founder of Watson Pharmaceuticals, a leading specialty pharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures, markets and distributes branded and generic pharmaceutical products.
“City of Hope’s Developmental Cancer Therapeutics program embodies the institution’s goals of rapidly transforming laboratory findings into more effective, less invasive treatments for cancer,” said Michael A. Friedman, M.D., president and chief executive officer. “With this generous gift, Dr. and Mrs. Chao will help enable our continued innovation and progress.”
City of Hope’s Developmental Cancer Therapeutics program spans basic, translational and clinical research and fosters close collaborations among a variety of departments and researchers. Program members are experienced in a wide spectrum of disciplines essential for development of innovative, molecularly targeted cancer therapeutics.
“Dr. Yen’s leadership and the work of City of Hope and its Developmental Cancer
Therapeutics Program are inspiring,” said Chao. “The institution’s tradition of collaboration and commitment to developing novel cancer therapies and moving those discoveries quickly to help patients are unparalleled. We are proud to make
this commitment of support.”
Yen joined City of Hope in 1993 and is associate director for translational research in the comprehensive cancer center and professor in the Division of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research.
He has received several grants from the National Institutes of Health and also has been awarded Department of Defense breast cancer and prostate cancer grants.
Yen is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Sigma-Xi Scientific Association and the New York Academy of Sciences. He has published more than 140 abstracts and peer-reviewed journal articles, serves as an ad hoc reviewer/referee for several
journals and is on the editorial board of Clinical Colorectal Cancer.
Chao co-founded Watson Pharmaceuticals in 1983 and served as the company’s chief executive officer from 1985 to September 2007. He has received numerous honors, including the Purdue University President’s Council Distinguished
Pinnacle Award. He earned his doctorate in industrial and physical pharmacy from Purdue in 1973, and his wife earned her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Purdue that same year.
