October 28, 2014 – New York, NY – The Milstein Medical Asian American Partnership Foundation (MMAAP Foundation), established in 2012 with the aim to improve world health by developing mutually beneficial partnerships between the US and China, as well as greater Asia, welcomed its Fellow in Hematology. Dr. Chuanxu Liu who received his MD in Pathology and Pathophysiology at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and is coming from the university’s affiliated Xin Hua Hospital, is the recipient of the 2014 MMAAP Foundation Fellowship Award in Hematology. Dr. Liu will spend a year at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. His research project is entitled “Developing small-molecule inhibitors targeting AML1-ETO and E proteins interactions”.
Howard P. Milstein, Founder and Chairman of the MMAAP Foundation, welcomed Dr. Liu and discussed with him the focus of his research and the background of the MMAAP Foundation. The idea for the foundation was conceived in early 2011 when Mr. Milstein met with members of the then Chinese Ministry of Health (currently the National Health and Family Planning Commission) to facilitate interactions between his medical philanthropic interests in the US and leading Chinese institutions in clinical care and medical research. In December 2011, the MMAAP Foundation framework was presented to Vice Minister, Liu Qian, MD, of the Ministry of Health, who enthusiastically endorsed the plan and provided important advice.
The MMAAP Foundation currently offers funding opportunities in Geriatric Medicine (under the Irma and Paul Milstein Program for Senior Health), Dermatology, Hematology, and Translational Medicine in the form of Fellowship Awards and Research Project Awards, which aim to support medical researches that have the potential to affect healthcare in China. The Fellowship Awards sponsor promising investigators like Dr. Liu in clinical or basic research to receive one-year training in the US at a distinguished partner institution. The Research Project Awards provide funding for research projects conducted in China with a US partner institution.