Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science

Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU) is a private research university in Willowbrook, California, focused on health sciences. It was founded in 1966 in response to inadequate medical access within the Watts region of Los Angeles, California. The university is named in honor of Charles R. Drew, a physician and medical researcher whose pioneering work in blood transfusion and blood banking during World War II laid the foundation for modern transfusion medicine. CDU is a federally designated Historically Black Graduate Institutions, one of only four historically Black medical colleges in the United States and the only such institution west of the Mississippi.