Mystery donor gives UH med school $1M
An anonymous donor gave $1 million to the University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine for cardiovascular research. Above are lab tech Aaron Tuia, left, and students Anita Schorlemmer and Zain Allison at work.
Zain Allison, a microbiology premed student, worked on genotyping mice yesterday at the University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine. The school has received a $1 million anonymous donation to create an endowment that will help support research of cardiovascular disease.
An anonymous donor has given $1 million to the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine to further research of cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 cause of death in Hawaii and the nation.
The money will establish an endowment, the income of which will help support investigators and train cardiology fellows at the Center for Cardiovascular Research, as well as develop research relating to heart disease in Hawaii, according to professor Ralph Shohet, center director. The endowment is expected to generate income of between $40,000 and $50,000 each year, he said.
The new projects will include investigating the effects of methamphetamine on the heart and developing new technologies to diagnose heart disease from small amounts of blood, as well as new approaches to gene therapy to treat heart disease.
The center’s ongoing projects look at how low oxygen and diabetes affect the heart and how blockages in arteries develop.
