Breakthroughs
Research
The University of Hawai’i at Mānoa Graduate Student Organization (GSO) has awarded its 2020 Merit Based Award in Research to Dr. Louie Mar Gangcuangco, Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology, and Pharmacology (Master’s). Each year the GSO recognizes one Master’s level student completing their master’s thesis, and one Doctoral level student completing their dissertation. Successful applicants demonstrate a history of scholarly contributions and commitment to research.
“I am a physician from the Philippines who recently graduated from the MS Tropical Medicine program in Spring 2020,” Dr. Gangcuangco said.
His thesis adviser is Dr. Cecilia Shikuma of the Hawaii Center for AIDS. The full title of his thesis is “Comparison of plasma fibrosis markers among people living with HIV in the Philippines and Hawaii.”
According to Dr. Gangcuangco, the Philippines has the fastest growing HIV epidemic in the Western Pacific region, registering more than 1,000 new cases monthly. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 75 million people have been infected with HIV since the epidemic began in the 1980s.