Caltech medical engineers Yu-Chong Tai, Azita Emami, and Morteza (Mory) Gharib (PhD ’83) look forward to the advances a new $30 million gift from Panda Express co-founders Andrew and Peggy Cherng will help make possible. Focused on many of the most difficult challenges in translational medicine, scientists and engineers in the newly named Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering at Caltech are working with colleagues across engineering and science to develop implantable devices and therapeutic systems to benefit patients with cardiac disease, diabetes, glaucoma, kidney problems, leukemia, and other conditions.

The Cherngs’ gift will bolster the department’s pioneering educational and research programs, strengthening collaborations with faculty in the Institute’s divisions of Biology and Biological Engineering (BBE) and Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (CCE) as well as with clinicians and investigators at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, City of Hope, UCSF School of Medicine, Huntington Memorial Hospital, and Huntington Memorial Research Institutes to pursue solutions for cheaper, more effective, and more accessible health care.

In this video: Yu-Chong Tai, Caltech’s Anna L. Rosen Professor of Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and holder of the Andrew and Peggy Cherng Leadership Chair for Medical Engineering; Azita Emami, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering at Caltech; and Morteza Gharib (PhD ’83), Caltech’s Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Bioinspired Engineering

About the Cherngs: As co-chairs and co-CEOs of Panda Restaurant Group, Inc., Andrew and Peggy Cherng operate some 2,000 Panda Express restaurants across the country and around the world. But their first family restaurant, Panda Inn, opened its doors in Pasadena. During more than four decades working as business owners and entrepreneurs in Pasadena, they have developed a strong appreciation for the institutions and people who call the city home. “We always thought of Caltech as a shining star of Pasadena,” says Peggy Cherng, who is also a Caltech trustee.

Visit http://breakthrough.caltech.edu to learn more about how "Break Through: The Caltech Campaign" is supporting Caltech scholars and their extraordinary research.

Produced in association with Caltech Academic Media Technologies. ©2017 California Institute of Technology