News Release

Department of Marketing and Communications

Date: March 1, 2016
Contact: Paula Darte
Phone: 216.870.6323
Email: Paula.Darte@UHhospitals.org

Cleveland – The Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals (UH) in Cleveland, Ohio – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development – has opened its annual award competition to fund physician-scientist innovators at major academic medical centers across the country to advance their work toward therapeutic discoveries.

The Harrington Discovery Institute opens an annual competition each spring to identify the nation’s most talented physician-scientists, who will be supported financially and professionally, all to help bridge the gap between bench research and the identification of therapeutic leads that show promise of going to human proof-of-concept and eventually into the clinic.

This year, the institute will select up to 12 researchers to receive Harrington Scholar-Innovator awards, which provide financial support (up to $700,000) to each selected physician-scientist, as well as project management support from leaders in the pharmaceutical industry charged with fostering pragmatic drug development through the Institute’s Innovation Support Center. Mentors with the Innovation Support Center offer guidance around target validation, commercial development and FDA regulatory strategy. While working with the Institute, physician-scientists (and their institutions) retain the intellectual property (IP) rights for their work.

“We are in our fourth year now and are seeing that the bridge we have built across the ‘Valley of Death’ – from lab bench to commercial realm using a novel R&D approach – is actually working,” said Jonathan Stamler, MD, Harrington Discovery Institute Director. “This is gratifying to all of us involved – including Ron Harrington and his family – whose focused philanthropy provided the foundation for a new industry paradigm.”

The competition is open to physician-scientists at accredited academic medical centers, research institutions and universities in the United States. Selection criteria include innovation, creativity and potential for impact on human health. Applicants must have a doctorate in medicine and demonstrate exceptional promise. Award recipients will be selected by the Harrington Discovery Institute’s Scientific Advisory Board and announced in December 2016.

“Physician-scientists embody a unique blend of passion and dedication to scientific rigor,” said Mukesh K. Jain, MD, Scientific Director, Harrington Discovery Institute. “They are highly motivated by concern for patients, and bring that deep concern to the pressing search for novel therapeutics. By cultivating a cadre of scholar-innovators from across the country, UH’s Harrington Discovery Institute is proving itself to be a game-changer in the R&D space.”

“We are seeing success with the Institute’s model of research and discovery,” continued Dr. Stamler. “Our scholars are moving discoveries forward relatively quickly, which is why we have decided to invest even more this year in our Scholar-Innovators.”

For more information about the Harrington Scholar-Innovator Award, please visit HarringtonDiscovery.org/grant

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Harrington Discovery Institute
The Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio—part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development—aims to advance medicine and society by enabling our nation’s most inventive physician-scientists to turn their discoveries into medicines that improve human health.

The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development
The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development (The Harrington Project), announced in late February 2012, is a first-of-its-kind $250 million national initiative, powered by a $50 million gift from the Harrington family. It includes the Harrington Discovery Institute and BioMotiv, a for-profit, mission-aligned development company that oversees a portfolio of early-stage programs, which are built to be licensed to pharmaceutical companies.

For more information about The Harrington Project, the Harrington Discovery Institute and the Harrington Scholar-Innovator program, visit: www.HarringtonDiscovery.org

About University Hospitals
Founded in May 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of 18 hospitals, more than 40 outpatient health centers and primary care physician offices in 15 counties throughout Northeast Ohio. At the core of our $4 billion health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center, ranked among America’s best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, UH Case Medical Center is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research programs in the nation, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics, radiology, neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, digestive health, transplantation and genetics. Its main campus includes UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children’s hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. UH is the second largest employer in Northeast Ohio with 26,000 employees. For more information, go to www.UHhospitals.org.